THE  LITTLE  BOOK 
OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

EVA  MARCH  TAPPAN 


THE  LITTLE  BOOK 
OF  OUR  COUNTRY 


BY 

EVA  MARCH  TAPPAN 


Publiched  for  the 

LdUCATION  AL    B  UREAU 

National  War  Wokk  Council  of 
YouNc;  TwLx's   Christian  Associations, 

As:.ociATioN  Press, 

347   Aladison   Avenue,   New  York 

1919 


THE  LITTLE  BOOK 
OF  OUR  COUNTRY 


BY 


EVA  MARCH  TAPPAN 


Published  for  the 

Educational  Bureau 

National  War  Work  Council  of 

Young  Men's  Christian  Associations, 

'-7 

Association  Press^ 

347  Madison  Avenue,  New  York 

1919 


Copyright,  1919,  by 
Eva   Masch  Tappam 


CONTENTS 


The  Discovery  of  America 5 

Why    Colonies    Were    Founded    in 
America 10 

III .     How    England    Came    to    Rule    in 
L"       America 14 

• 

:IV.  Why  There  Was  Trouble  Between 
THE  Colonies  and  the  King  of 
England 22 

V.     The  Story  of  the  Revolution 28 

VI.     How  the  United  States  Formed  Its 
Government 40 

The  Star-Spangled  Banner 44 

How   the   Questions   of   Boundary 
Were  Settled 50 

IX.     "Our  Federal  Union:  It  Must  Be 
^  Preserved" 56 

X.     To  the  Far  West 65 

*XI.    The  United  States  Becomes  a  World 

Power 74 

XII.     Our  Country  Today 82 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA 

Four  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  no  one  sus- 
pected that  there  was  such  a  land  as  America. 
Europeans  knew  a  Httle  of  Africa  and  of  Asia,  but 
nothing  of  the  rest  of  the  world.  They  were  par- 
ticularly eager  to  know  more  of  Asia,  because  from 
the  East,  that  is,  from  Japan,  China,  and  India, 
came  many  of  their  luxuries,  such  as  silks,  pearls, 
jewelry,  perfumes,  and  spices.  These  were  brought 
to  Europe  by  long  and  wearisome  overland  jour- 
neys, and  if  there  was  only  some  way  of  reaching 
the  East  by  water,  this  trade  would  be  much 
easier  to  carry  on. 

How  to  find  such  a  way  was  a  puzzle.  Most 
people  thought  the  earth  was  flat,  and  that  if  a 
ship  went  too  near  the  edge,  it  would  slip  over  into 
no  one  knew  what.  A  few  learned  men  believed 
^.hat  the  earth  was  round  and  that  by  sailing  west 
from  Europe,  one  would  come  to  the  East,  but  no 
one  was  bold  enough  to  push  out  into  the  waters 
of  the  unknown  Atlantic.  This  was  full  of  whirl- 
pools and  all  sorts  of  sea  monsters,  people  thought, 
and  was  the  home  of  evil  spirits.     Probably  the 

s 


6  THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

water  boiled  as  one  drew  near  the  equator.  It  is 
no  wonder  that  they  hesitated. 

But  in  Italy  there  was  a  man  who  did  not 
hesitate.  His  name  was  Christopher  Columbus. 
He  had  been  a  sailor  most  of  his  life,  but  besides 
sailing  he  had  done  a  great  deal  of  studying  and 
thinking.  He  was  one  of  the  few  who  believed 
that  the  world  was  round,  and  what  was  more,  he 
was  ready  to  risk  his  life  in  a  voyage  to  prove  bis 
belief  and  to  teach  the  Christian  faith  to  the  people 
of  the  East. 

But  he  could  not  make  such  a  voyage  without 
money.  He  asked  the  King  of  Portugal,  who  told 
him  he  was  a  dreamer.  Then  he  asked  the  sover- 
eigns of  Spain.  After  a  long  delay,  Queen  Isabella 
agreed  to  pay  the  greater  part  of  the  cost  of  the 
voyage,  and  Columbus  set  sail.  He  had  three 
little  vessels,  the  largest  only  sixty-five  feet  long, 
and  a  crew  of  unwilling  sailors,  most  of  whom  had 
been  forced  to  go.  Many  a  time  they  tried  to 
make  him  turn  back;  more  than  once  they  plotte^ 
to  kill  him;  but  he  still  sailed  on.  At  last,  October 
12,  1492,  ten  weeks  after  leaving  Spain,  he  came 
to  some  islands.  He  believed  that  they  were  oU 
the  coast  of  India,  and  as  he  had  reached  them  by 
sailing  west,    he   named   them   the   West   Indies. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA  7 

For  three  months  he  cruised  about  among  them, 
then  he  returned  to  Spain. 

When  Columbus  reached  Spain  there  was  a 
great  celebration,  for  the  Spaniards  supposed  they 
were  honoring  the  man  who  had  discovered  a 
snorter  route  to  India.  He  had  opened  the  way, 
they  thought,  to  a  trade  with  the  East  which 
would  make  their  country  rich  and  powerful.  On 
his  next  voyage,  everybody  wanted  to  go  with  him 
to  find  the  great  cities  which  they  were  sure  must 
be  very  near  the  West  Indies.  When  these  could 
not  be  found,  the  Spaniards  were  disappointed  and 
angry;  and  Colymbus,  who  had  been  bold  where 
others  feared,  who  had  persevered  where  others 
yielded,  who  had  pointed  out  the  way  to  the 
mighty  western  world,  was  allowed  to  die  in 
poverty  and  neglect. 

If  the  Spaniards  had  known  that  the  land  which 
blocked  the  way  of  Columbus  was  three  thousand 
miles  wide,  they  would  have  been  more  discouraged 
than  ever;  but  they  thought  it  was  perhaps  a  vast 
group  of  islands,  or  that,  even  if  it  was  a  long  strip 
of  land,  there  must  be  somewhere  a  passageway 
through  it.  The  nations  of  western  Europe  were 
all  interested  in  the  search  for  that  passageway. 
The  Italian  captains  were  especially  daring  and 


8  THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUK  COUNTRY 

skillful.  One  of  them,  named  John  Cabot,  was 
living  in  England,  and  the  English  king  sent  him 
to  see  if  he  could  find  it.  England  did  not  care  to 
interfere  with  Spain,  for  at  that  time  Spain  was 
the  most  powerful  country  in  Europe,  therefore 
Cabot  sailed  directly  west  and  came  to  land  at 
Newfoundland  or  Cape  Breton  or  possibly  Labra- 
dor. Portugal  sent  out  an  Italian  captain  named 
Americus  Vespucius.  He  went  to  Brazil,  and 
when  he  reached  home  he  published  a  map  of  the 
country  and  an  account  of  his  discoveries.  No 
one  supposed  that  there  was  any  connection  be- 
tween Brazil  and  the  land  seen  by  Columbus  and 
by  Cabot.  It  was  thought  that  Americus  had  dis- 
covered a  new  continent,  and  writers  on  geography 
began  to  call  it  America.  After  a  while  the  name 
spread  to  include  the  whole  double  continent. 
This  is  how  it  happened  that  the  country  in  which 
we  live  took  its  name  from  an  Italian  who  never 
saw  it. 

France,  too,  sent  out  discoverers,  Jacques  Cartie5; 
and  others.  They  sailed  up  the  St.  Lawrence 
River;  some  of  them  floated  down  the  Mississippi 
almost  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Spain,  however,  wal 
the  most  eager  explorer.  Spaniards  visited  Florida 
and  made  long  journeys  through  the  Southwest. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  AMERICA  "      9 

One  of  the  captains  sent  out  by  Spain,  a  Portuguese 
named  Magellan,  sailed  down  the  eastern  coast  of 
South  America,  then  up  the  western,  then  crossed 
the  Pacific  Ocean.  Magellan  himself  was  killed 
by  the  natives  on  the  Philippine  Islands,  but  one 
of  his  ships  went  on  and  so  made  the  first  voyage 
around  the  wxrld.  This  proved  that  the  earth  was 
round  and  that  America  was  a  great  new  continent. 

Many  years  after  the  voyage  of  John  Cabot,  an 
Englishman,  Sir  Francis  Drake,  sailed  around  the 
world,  following  much  the  same  course  as  Magellan. 
On  the  way  he  landed  on  the  shores  of  what  is  now 
California  and  named  the  country  New  Albion. 
Another  Englishman,  Henry  Hudson,  sailing  in  the 
service  of  Holland,  discovered  the  Hudson  River 
and  Hudson  Bay,  which  are  named  for  him. 

So  it  was  that  within  about  one  hundred  years 

after   Columbus   had   shown   the   way,    England, 

Portugal,   France,   Spain,  and  Holland  all  made 

discoveries  in  the  New  World,  and  all  established 

''claims  to  some  of  its  territory. 


CHAPTER  II 
WHY  COLONIES  WERE  FOUNDED  IN  AMERICA 

When  the  year  1600  had  come,  Europeans  had  a 
fairly  good  idea  of  the  shape  of  South  America. 
Their  notions  of  North  America  were  rather  hazy, 
although  explorers  had  touched  here  and  there  on 
the  eastern  coast  and  also  on  the  western.  America 
lay  between  the  two  oceans,  a  great  mass  of  un- 
known land,  waiting  for  some  one  to  reveal  her 
treasures.  People  still  hoped  to  find  a  channel 
through  this  land  that  would  afford  a  shorter  way 
to  Asia,  and  they  never  gave  up  their  search  for 
the  "Northwest  Passage,"  as  they  called  it. 
,  Spain,  however,  now  cared  little  for  any  route  to 
Asia,  for  she  was  getting  enormous  quantities  of 
gold  and  silver  from  the  New  World.  She  had 
explored  Florida,  New  Mexico,  and  parts  of  South 
America,  conquering  the  natives,  seizing  the 
wealth  of  their  mines,  and  sending  it  back  to  Spain .^ 
The  Spaniards  had  made  two  permanent  settle- 
ments in  what  is  now  the  United  States.  These 
were  St.  Augustine  in  Florida  and  Santa  Fe  in* 
New  Mexico. 

Spain  was  rich,  but  she  was  not  having  an  easy 

10 


WHY  COLONIES  WERE  FOUNDED  H 

time.  The  Spanish  king  ruled  Holland  as  well  as 
Spain,  but  he  treated  the  Dutch  so  cruelly  that 
they  rebelled.  The  English  came  to  their  aid, 
and  in  1588  Spain  determined  to  send  so  mighty  a 
fleet  against  England  that  she  would  be  com- 
pletely crushed.  The  fleet  was  sent,  but  it  was 
overwhelmingly  defeated.  England  was  now  free 
from  all  fear  of  Spain.  She  could  found  as  many 
solonies  in  the  New  World  as  she  chose,  and  if 
Spain  dared  to  interfere  with  them,  England  was 
strong  enough  to  punish  her. 

Within  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the 
defeat  cf  Spain,  that  is,  between  1588  and  1733, 
settlements  had  been  made  in  what  are  now  the 
thirteen  states  lying  between  Maine  and  Florida. 
These  are  the  "Old  Thirteen,"  and  it  is  in  honor  of 
them  that  our  flag  contains  thirteen  stripes. 
Eleven  of  these  states  were  settled  by  Englishmen. 
New  York  was  ^tled  by  the  Dutch  and  Delaware 
by  the  Swedes;  but  both  of  these  states  soon  came 
finto  the  hands  or  the  English. 

Even  before  America  had  any  European  in- 
habitants, it  was  looked  upon  as  a  refuge,  as  a 
iand  of  freedom,  a  country  in  which  a  man  might 
have  a  chance.  Thousands  of  men  in  Europe, 
especially  in  England,  were  in  need  of  a  chance. 


12        THE  lln"TLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 


Landowners  were  giving  up  the  cultivation  of  the 
soil  for  sheep-raising.  One  man  could  care  for 
many  sheep,  and  there  was  not  work  enough  for  all. 
America  was  an  unknown  country,  and  no  one 
could  say  what  treasures  of  gold  and  silver  might 
be  found  in  its  soil.  It  was  certain  that  there 
was  plenty  of  lumber,  fruit,  fish,  and  furbearing 
animals,  and  there  was  sassafras,  which  many 
people  of  those  days  regarded  as  a  cure  for  all 
diseases.     Corn  and  tobacco  could  easily  be  raised. 

Wherever  discoverers  had  come  to  any  land,  they 
had  laid  claim  to  it  in  the  name  of  their  king,  and 
now  people  began  to  ask  their  rulers  for  grants  of 
land  in  the  New  World.  Sometimes  a  king  was 
willing  to  please  a  favorite  by  yielding  to  his  re- 
quest. Sometimes  he  found  it  convenient  to  pay 
his  debts  in  land  across  the  ocean  which  had  cost 
him  nothing.  Sometimes  he  gave  a  grant  to  a 
trading  company,  expecting  a  generous  return  for 
the  gift. 

From  time  to  time  colonists  set  sail  for  America.  ^ 
Many  of  them  were  wise  and  sensible   and  not 
afraid  of  work.     These  men  chose  good  sites  for 
their  colonies  and  got  on  well,  as  such  men  can  do  ^ 
anywhere.     Some  were  lazy  and  thought  it  quite 
beneath  their  dignity  to  work  with 'their  hands. 


WHY  COLONIES  WERE  FOUNDED  13 

They  were  willing  to  search  for  gold,  although  they 
had  no  idea  where  to  search,  and  even  if  they  had 
found  it,  they  did  not  know  how  gold  ore  looked. 
These  men  failed,  as  they  would  have  failed 
anywhere. 

Many  crossed  the  ocean  to  find  freedom  for  the 
practice  of  their  form  of  religion.  Religious 
freedom  was  a  new  idea  in  those  days,  and  for  the 
'subjects  of  a  king  to  differ  from  him  in  their 
religious  belief  was  looked  upon  as  quite  un- 
allowable. Severe  laws  were  passed  against  all 
such  people,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  some  of  them 
were  ready  even  to  leave  their  homes  and  come  to  a 
country  where  they  could  find  freedom  to  worship 
God  as  they  thought  most  pleasing  to  him  and  to 
train  up  their  children  in  the  ways  that  they 
believed  right.  The  trading  companies  brought 
over  some  men  who  were  too  poor  to  pay  their 
passage  and  let  them  pay  for  it  in  work.  One 
colony  was  formed  of  poor  debtors,  their  fare 
''being  paid  by  kind-hearted  men  in  England,  So 
it  was  that  in  one  way  or  another  America  was  to 
every  one  who  came  t©  her  shores  a  land  of  oppor- 
^:unity.  A  man  might  make  good  use  of  the 
opportunity  or  he  might  not,  but  at  least  he  had 
his  chance. 


CHAPTER  III 
HOW  ENGLAND  CAME  TO  RULE  IN  AMERICA 

The  great  double  continent  lying  between  the 
oceans  had  never  been  without  people,  for  long' 
before  any  Europeans  landed  on  its  shores — no  one 
knows  how  long — it  was  inhabited  by  many  tribes 
of  Indians.  The  "red  men"  of  the  South,  that  is," 
of  Mexico  and  South  America,  were  partly  civil- 
ized. They  made  beautiful  articles  of  gold  and 
silver  and  understood  the  use  of  bronze.  They 
wove  very  fine  cloth  of  cotton  and  of  wool,  and  they 
built  handsome- temples.  Indians  much  like  them 
live  today  in  New  Mexico  and  Arizona.  They 
learned  long  ago  how  to  build,  of  brick  burned  in 
the  sun,  strong  fortresses  four  and  five  stories  high. 
To  protect  themselves  against  the  savage  Indians 
around  them,  they  used  often  to  build  their  homes 
high  up  on  cliffs.  They  cultivated  the  ground, 
and  discovered  how  to  bring  water  down  from  the*) 
mountains  in  sluices  to  keep  their  cornfields  from 
being  parched  in  time  of  drought. 

The  Indians  with  whom  the  English  settlers  had" 
to  do  were  not  even  half  civilized.  Some  of  them 
lived  in  long  houses  made  by  covering  a  frame- 

14 


HOW  ENGLAND  CAME  TO  RULE  15 

work  with  elm  bark,  but  most  of  the  Indians  of 
the  East  hved  in  round  wigwams  or  huts  made  of 
the  bark  of  trees  or  the  skins  of  wild  animals. 
They  cultivated  the  soil  somewhat  and  raised 
beans,  squashes,  pumpkins,  and  especially  maize, 
which  we  still  call  Indian  corn.  Nuts  and  fruit 
and  rice  grew  wild;  there  were  fish  in  the  rivers  and 
lakes;  and  there  was  game  in  the  wilderness.     The 

*  red  men  made  fishhooks  of  bones;  axes,  knives, 
and  arrowheads  they  made  of  stone,  although 
some  of  them  had  learned  how  to  use  copper. 
They  made  pottery  of  clay,  and  light,  graceful 
canoes  of  the  bark  of  the  birch  and  the  elm.  For 
their  clothes  they  used  the  skins  of  wild  animals, 
often  ornamented  with  shell  beads.  They  wor- 
shipped the  sun,  moon,  lightning,  wind,  etc.,  and 
also  their  dead  ancestors.  They  had  no  general 
government;  each  tribe  was  independent,  and 
their  main  business  was  fighting.  In  war,  they 
were  savage,  and  they  put  their  prisoners  to  death 

''with  cruel  tortures.  They  never  forgot  to  avenge 
any  wrong  done  them;  but  on  the  other  hand,  they 
never  forgot  to  be  grateful  for  a  kindness. 

Such  were  the  neighbors  of  the  colonists.  The 
needs  of  the  red  men  and  the  white  men  were 
exactly  opposite.     The  red  men  wanted  forest,  so 


16         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

that  the  wild  animals  that  they  -killed  for  food 
and  furs  would  make  it  their  home;  but  the  white 
men  wanted  land  cleared  for  cultivation.  The  dif- 
ferent tribes  were  constantly  at  war,  and  when- 
ever the  whites  gave  any  assistance  to  one  tribe, 
some  other  tribe  was  always  ready  to  resent  it. 
Then,  too,  it  was  an  Indian  custom  to  avenge  any 
wrong  either  upon  the  man  who  had  done  it,  or 
upon  any  member  of  his  tribe,  or  upon  the  whole  * 
tribe,  as  opportunity  might  offer.  The  Indians 
looked  upon  all  white  men  as  belonging  to  one 
tribe,  and  if  any  white  man  wronged  them,  they 
were  ready  to  take  their  revenge  upon  any  other 
white  man  whom  they  could  reach.  It  is  small 
wonder  that  there  were  wars  between  the  white 
men  and  the  Indians,  or  that,  when  there  was  any 
trouble  among  the  different  colonies,  the  Indians 
were  ready  to  take  sides  or  to  seize  the  opportunity 
to  &,venge  their  own  wrongs. 

The  colonists  were  no  more  quarrelsome  than 
other  people,  but  they  stood  firmly  by  their  respec-  "^ 
tive  countries;  and  whenever  there  was  war  between 
France  and  England,  the  French  and  English 
colonies  promptly  took  it  up  and  began  to  make* 
raids  upon  one  another.  The  result  was  that  for 
seventy-five  years  of  colonial  history,  there  was 


HOW  ENGLAND  CAME  TO  RULE  17 

strife  among  the  colonists  more  than  half  the  time . 

The  main  events  of  the  earlier  warfare  were  the 
capture  of  Nova  Scotia  and  of  Louisburg,  a  French 
fortress  on  Cape  Breton  Island,  so  strong  that  it 
was  called  the  Gibraltar  of  America.  Militiamen 
from  New  England  actually  ventured  to  attack 
this  fort,  and  somehow  they  succeeded  in  taking 
it — they  themselves  hardly  understood  how.  When 
peace  was  made,  Louisburg  was  returned  to  France, 
greatly  to  the  wrath  of  the  New  Englanders. 

The  last  of  these  colonial  wars  concerned  the 
ownership  of  the  very  soil  upon  which  the  colonists 
had  settled,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  they  were 
ready  to  fight.  It  arose  because  England,  France, 
and  Spain  all  laid  claim  to  land  in  America,  and 
these  claims  conflicted.  John  Cabot  had  landed 
somewhere  about  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  and 
many  English  colonies  had  been  founded  on  the 
Atlantic  coast;  therefore  England  claimed  whatever 
land  there  might  be  north  of  the  Great  Lakes  and 
also  nearly  all  the  coast.  Cartier  had  explored  the 
St.  Lawrence  River,  Quebec  and  Montreal  had  been 
founded,  the  French  had  built  a  line  of  forts  along 
the  Mississippi,  and  near  its  mouth  they  had 
founded  New  Orleans  and  other  colonies;  therefore 
France   made   a   sweeping   claim  to   all   the   land 


18         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

drained  by  the  two  great  rivers  and  their  branches. 
Columbus  had  discovered  America  and  visited 
the  West  Indies,  and  Spaniards  had  conquered 
Mexico,  had  built  St.  Augustine  in  Florida  and 
Santa  Fe  in  New  Mexico,  and  had  done  much 
exploring  in  the  southwestern  part  of  what  is  now  , 
the  United  States;  therefore  Spain  claimed  an 
enormous  tract  of  land  in  that  part  of  the  country. 
Here,  then,  was  a  great  continent,  to  vast  areas  of  ,, 
which  France,  England,  and  Spain  had  estab- 
lished claims,  and  not  even  the  claimants  them- 
selves knew  definitely  where  the  claims  began  or 
ended.  It  is  little  wonder  that  they  disagreed, 
and  that  at  length  the  disagreements  led  to  war, 
a  war  that  settled  the  question  which  nation 
should  rule  in  America. 

The  quarrel  began  about  the  boundaries  of  Nova 
Scotia.  Then  came  trouble  about  the  valley  of  the 
Ohio  River,  for  there  the  English  and  the  French 
had  clashed.  The  Governor  of  Virginia  sent 
George  Washington,  a  young  man  of  twenty-one 
years,  to  warn  the  French  that  they  were  on  the 
territory  of  the  English.  It  was  no  easy  journey 
over  mountains  and  through  forests  in  November  ^ 
weather.  Sometimes  it  rained,  and  sometimes  it 
snowed.     Little  creeks  had  swollen  to  rivers  and 


HOW  ENGLAND  CAME  TO  RULE  19- 

rivers  had  overflowed  their  banks;  but  the  young 
messenger  crossed  them  in  the  best  way  he  could, 
dehvered  his  message,  and  set  out  for  home — on 
foot,  because  he  could  go  through  the  snow  more 
rapidly  than  his  horse.     The  weather  had  grown 

.even  colder  and  the  streams  were  full  of  floating 
ice.  He  was  fired  upon  by  Indians;  but  he  made 
the  journey  and  returned  to  report  to  the  Governor 

^that  the  French  had  no  intention  of  leaving.  The 
following  spring  young  Washington  was  sent  to 
the  Ohio  valley  with  a  body  of  troops.  Then  and 
there  began  the  war  which  the  English  colonists 
called  the  French  and  Indian  War  because  they 
had  to  fight  French  and  Indians. 

Even  in  war  time  the  colonies  were  jealous  of 
one  another  and  did  not  always  pull  together. 
Benjamin  Franklin,  editor  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Gazette,  printed  in  his  paper  a  picture  of  a  snake 
cut  into  pieces,  the  pieces  marked  with  the  names 
of  the  different  colonies.  Many  people  believed 
that  if  a  real  snake  was  cut  up  in  this  way,  it  was 
possible  for  the  pieces  to  unite  and  the  snake  to 
live.  Therefore  Franklin  gave  his  picture  the 
motto,  "Unite  or  die,"  and  he  drew  up  a  plan  of 
union.  The  colonists  thought  this  plan  was  not 
democratic  enough,  and  the  King  thought  it  might 


20         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

lead  to  independence.  The  plan  was  given  up,  but 
it  made  people  talk  about  the  advantages  of  unit- 
ing, and  this  rude  picture  was  a  long  step  toward 
the  union  of  a  few  years  later. 

For  five  years  the  war  continued.  When  the 
year  1759  had  come  the  English  formed  a  bold  . 
plan  for  the  conquest  of  the  French  colony  to  the 
north,  that  is,  of  Canada.  The  hardest  part  of  the 
undertaking  and  the  most  important  was  the  cap-  ^ 
ture  of  Quebec,  which  was  left  to  the  English 
commander.  General  Wolfe.  Quebec  stands  on  a 
lofty  cliff  which  pushes  out  into  the  St.  Lawrence 
River.  The  French  General,  Montcalm,  had  seen 
to  it  that  three  sides  of  the  town  were  well  de- 
fended. On  the  fourth  side  was  a  broad  plateau 
called  the  Plains  of  Abraham.  No  trouble  could 
come  from  that  direction,  Montcalm  thought,  be- 
cause the  only  way  to  reach  the  Plains  was  to  climb 
up  a  steep  cliff.  But  behold!  One  dark  night 
General  Wolfe  landed  at  the  foot  of  the  cliff,  and 
silently  his  men  began  to  climb.  Early  in  the  ^ 
morning.  General  Montcalm  was  amazed  to  see 
some  five  thousand  English  troops  drawn  up  ready 
for  battle.  The  English  won  the  day,  but  both 
the  brave  young  commanders  fell.  In  the  follow- 
ing year  Montreal  was  taken,  and  now  the  English 


HOW  ENGLAND  CAME  TO  RULE  21 

held  all  Canada.  Spain  took  up  arms  to  help 
France,  but  was  of  small  assistance,  and  lost 
Havana  sind  the  Philippine  Islands  to  the  English. 
The  treaty  which  was  made  at  the  close  of  the 
war  is  famous  for  two  reasons:  first,  it  settled  the 

«  question  whether  England  or  France  should  rule 
in  America,  and,  second,  it  transferred  from  France 
to  England  the  widest  area  of  land  that  had  ever 

.  passed  by  treaty  from  one  nation  to  another. 
France  fared  badly,  for  she  had  to  give  up  every 
foot  of  her  possessions  on  the  continent  of  North 
America.  The  city  of  New  Orleans  and  all  the 
French  claims  west  of  the  Mississippi  she  gave  to 
Spain.  Her  claims  east  of  that  river  and  city  she 
gave  to  England.  Two  little  islands  in  the  Gulf 
of  St.  Lawrence  were  left  to  her  as  shelter  for  her 
fishermen.  Spain  then  held  Florida,  which  ex- 
tended to  the  Mississippi  River;  but  she  agreed  to 
give  it  up  if  Havana  and  the  Philippines  were  re- 
turned to  her.     So  it  was  that  at  the  end  of  the 

^  French  and  Indian  War,  England  held  the  con- 
tinent from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Mississippi;  and 
Spain  held  all  from  the  Mississippi  River  west- 

,  ward.  There  had  been  some  exploration  of  the 
southwestern  part  of  this  territory,  but  the  north- 
western part  was  totally  unknown. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Wm'  THERE  WAS  TROUBLE  BETWEEN  THE 
COLONISTS  AND  THE  KING  OF  ENGLAND 

Some  of  the  American  colonies  were  governed 
by  officers  appointed  by  the  King,  some  by  "pro- 
prietors," or  persons  to  whom  the  King  had  given 
grants  of  land,  and  some,  which  held  charters,  by 
the  freemen  of  those  colonies.  If  the  King  was 
displeased  with  a  colony  founded  under  a  charter, 
he  would  sometimes  take  its  charter  away  and 
appoint  officers  to  govern  it.  In  one  respect,  how- 
ever, the  government  of  all  the  colonies  was  alike, 
namely,  each  one  had  its  legislative  assembly, 
whose  members  were  elected  by  the  people,  and 
only  this  assembly  could  impose  taxes  upon  them. 

The  English  Parliament  made  laws  for  the 
colonies  as  a  w^hole,  and  some  of  these,  especially 
the  ones  affecting  their  trade  and  manufactures, 
were  not  at  all  pleasing  to  these  Englishmen  in 
America.  For  instance,  all  goods  brought  to  the 
colonies  or  sold  by  them,  or  even  sold  by  one 
colony  to  another,  must  be  carried  in  either  English 
or  Colonial  vessels.  The  principal  colonial  exports 
must  be  sent  to  England,  even  if  other  countries 

22 


TROUBLE  WITH  ENGLAND        23 

would  pay  higher  prices  for  them.  If  an  American 
merchant  wished  to  buy  goods  in  any  other  Europ- 
ean country,  he  must  have  them  shipped  to  Eng- 
land, reloaded  on  English  vessels  to  be  brought  to 
America,  and  must  pay  duty  in  both  England  and 

'America.  These  laws  were  called  "Navigation 
Acts." 

The    English    Parliament    also    forbade    manu- 

*facturing.  The  colonists  might  grow  wool,  for 
instance,  but  they  must  send  it  to  England  to  be 
made  into  cloth,  and  must  then  buy  the  cloth  of 
English  manufacturers.  They  might  smelt  iron, 
but  it  must  he  sent  to  England  to  be  made  into 
ploughshares  and  spades  and  hoes  and  nails,  and 
then  resold  to  them — at  a  good  round  profit. 

If  any  country  made  such  laws  for  her  colonies 
today,  we  should  think  that  her  lawmakers  were 
insane;  but  a  century  and  a  half  ago  these  laws 
were  looked  upon  by  most  people  in  all  countries 
as  entirely  fair  and   proper,   and  they  were  not 

♦  nearly  so  severe  as  the  laws  which  both  France 
and  Spain  made  for  their  colonies.  What  are 
colonies  for,  people  reasoned,  if  not  to  increase  the 

.trade  and  prosperity  of  the  mother  country?  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  however,  the  colonists  often  man- 
aged to  evade  such  laws,  and  not  only  did  consid- 


24         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

erable  manufacturing  but  carried  on  a  thriving 
business  in  smuggling,  a  common  practice  on 
European  coasts.  Moreover,  colonists  shared  in 
the  monopoly  of  the  carrying  trade  from  which 
foreign  vessels  were  excluded. 

At  the  close  of  the  French  and  Indian  War,  the  ' 
English  King  and  Parliament  decided  to  tax 
America,  to  help  pay  the  cost  of  the  war  and  also 
of  soldiers  whom  they  proposed  to  station  in  this  - 
country  lest  France  or  Spain  should  try  to  recover 
their  lost  American  territory.  Certain  articles  were 
to  be  taxed,  and  the  paper  on  which  deeds,  wills, 
and  all  legal  papers  were  written  must  bear  a 
Government  stamp.  These  stamps  were  made  in 
England,  and  must  be  bought  by  the  colonists. 
This  was  the  famous  "Stamp  Act." 

The  colonists  were  indignant.  "We  are  no  less 
Englishmen  because  we  have  crossed  the  seas," 
they  declared,  "and  no  Parliament  has  any  right 
to  tax  an  Englishman  unless  he  is  represented  in 
Parliament."  "No  taxation  without  representa-  t 
tion"  became  the  slogan  of  the  day. 

The  colonists  had  one  sure  weapon,  and  that  was 
to  buy  no  goods  made  in  England.     When  the  ^ 
English   manufacturers  found  that  their  colon"al 
trade  was  falling  off,  they  insisted  that  the  Act  be 


TROUBLE  WITH  ENGLAND        25 

repealed.  This  was  done,  but  the  following  year 
a  new  tax  was  laid  upon  tea  and  a  few  other  articles. 
Again  the  colonists  refused  to  buy,  and  after  a  while 
Parliament  removed  all  taxes  except  one  of  three 
*  pence  a  pound  on  tea.  This  was  planned  by  King 
George  III  and  his  party,  and  was  regarded  by 
them  as  a  brilliant  way  to  "get  even"  with  the 
.  obstinate  colonials.  The  Dutch  had  been  smug- 
gling tea  into  America  and  selling  it  cheaper 
than  the  English  tea  company.  "We  will  free 
the  company  from  paying  duties  in  England," 
said  the  King.  "The  colonists  can  then  buy 
their  tea  and  also  pay  the  tax  of  three  pence  a 
pound  for  less  than  they  can  buy  tea  of  the  Dutch." 
The  King  supposed  that  the  colonists  would  buy 
the  tea  that  cost  least.  Thus  the  right  to  tax  them 
would  be  established,  and  this  was  what  he  wanted. 

The  ships  of  tea  crossed  the  ocean.  Some  of  the 
colonies  sent  it  back,  others  stored  it  in  damp 
,  cellars  where  it  soon  spoiled.  In  Boston,  a  party 
of  men  disguised  as  Indians  threw  the  tea  into  the 
harbor.  This  is  known  a?  the  ''Boston  Tea 
Party."     The  King's  trick  had  not  succeeded. 

"Why  was  it  that  the  King  was  so  determined  to 
tax  the  colonists,  and  why  could  it  not  all  easily 
have  been  settled   by  allowing  them   to   send   a 


26         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

representative  to  Parliament?  It  was  because 
exactly  the  same  question  of  taxation  without  repre- 
sentation had  arisen  in  England.  If  Parliament 
yielded  to  the  English  in  America,  it  must  yield  to 
the  EngLsh  in  England,  and  that  was  quite  against  » 
the  wishes  of  the  King  and  his  party. 

This  is  the  way  it  was.  More  than  two  hundred 
years  before  this  time,  England  had  been  divided  - 
into  districts,  and  each  district  was  allowed  to 
send  repesentatives  to  the  House  of  Commons 
according  to  the  number  of  its  inhabitants.  As 
years  passed,  population  changed.  Great  cities 
grew  up  in  barren  districts,  and  some  places  that 
had  once  been  fully  populated  became  thinly 
peopled — indeed  one  district  had  at  last  no  in- 
habitants at  all.  The  result  was  that  some  great 
cities  which  paid  large  taxes  had  not  one  repre- 
sentative in  Parliament;  while  some  of  the  thinly 
populated  districts  which  paid  very  small  taxes 
had  a  number  of  representatives.  This  was  » 
grossly  unjust,  but  it  suited  the  politicians,  because 
a  little  bribery  in  a  thinly  populated  place  would 
buy  a  seat  in  Parliament.  When  George  III  , 
came  to  the  throne,  he  adopted  the  same  plan  of 
bribery,  for  he  was  determined  to  have  his  own 
way  and  the  only  method  of  getting  it  was  to  make 


TROUBLE  WITH  ENGLAND        27 

sure  that  there  was  a  majority  in  Parhament  of 
men  who  would  support  whatever  he  wished. 
William  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham,  was  working  to 
bring  about  a  rearrangement  of  districts  to  corres- 

r  pond  to  the  changes  in  population.  This  would 
have  spoiled  the  King's  plans,  and  he  opposed  with 
all  his  might  any  such  change.     That  is  why  George 

>  III  and  the  "King's  friends,"  as  his  followers  were 
called,  were  so  obstinately  determined  to  make  the 
American  colonies  yield;  while  the  greatest  states- 
men of  England  and  the  masses  of  her  people 
looked  upon  the  colonists  as  fighting  their  battles. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  STORY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

To  punish  Boston  for  her  tea  party,  the  King 
contrived  to  get  Parhament  to  pass  a  port  bill  for- 
bidding any  -ships  to  enter  or  leave  that  city.  It 
did  not  accomplish  much  in  the  way  of  punish- 
ment, for  Marblehead  promptly  offered  Boston 
the  free  use  of  her  wharves  and  storehouses,  and 
other  colonies  sent  food  and  drove  flocks  of  sheep 
and  cattle  into  the  town.  Even  far-away  South 
Carolina  sent  shiploads  of  rice. 

Men  from  the  different  colonies  had  fought  side 
by  side  in  the  wars.  They  had  learned  to  know 
one  another,  and  they  had  the  same  love  of  liberty. 
Ten  years  before  this,  Virginia  had  refused  to  pay 
unjust  taxes,  and  Patrick  Henry,  an  eloquent 
speaker,  declared,  "Caesar  had  his  Brutus,  Charles  I 
his  Cromwell,  and  George  III" — "Treason,  trea- 
son," cried  some  of  his  hearers,  and  he  ended  by 
saying,  "may  profit  by  their  example.  If  this  be 
treason,  make  the  most  of  it."  The  colonists  now 
held  a  congress,  which  resolved  that  they  ought  to 
stand  by  Massachusetts. 

British  troops  were  quartered  in  Boston,  and  a 

28 


STORY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  29 

British  man-of-war  lay  in  the  harbor.  No  one 
knew  what  might  happen,  but  Massachusetts  did 
not  mean  to  be  caught  unprepared.  She  formed 
companies  of  "minutemen,"  or  men  who  promised 
to  be  ready  at  one  minute's  notice  if  they  were 
needed.  She  also  hid  away  powd6r,  shot,  guns, 
and  cannon  in  different  places  of  safety. 

The  British  commander  heard  that  some  of  these 
munitions  were  stored  in  Concord,  and  sent  troops 
off  very  quietly  one  evening  to  get  possession  of 
them.  But  the  colonists  were  not  caught  napping. 
They  hung  two  lanterns  in  the  belfry  of  the  North 
Church  as  a  signal  to  Paul  Revere,  who  was  waiting 
some  distance  away,  and  He  galloped  through  the 
villages  and  the  country,  crying  out  in  the  dark- 
ness, "The  British  regulars  are  out!" 

The  regulars  had  planned  not  only  to  seize  the 
stores,  but  also  to  arrest  John  Hancock  and 
Samuel  Adams,  leaders  of  the  patriots;  but  on 
reaching  Lexington,  they  found  that  the  two  men 
had  escaped.  Some  seventy  minutemen,  how- 
ever, stood  waiting.  "Throw  down  your  arms  and 
disperse,  you  rebels!"  shouted  the  British  com- 
'mander.  They  did  not  disperse,  and  the  troops 
fired ,  killing  eight  minutemen .  They  then  marched 
to  Concord  and  destroyed  what  stores  they  could 


30         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

find  there.  By  this  time  the  news  had  spread,  and 
angry  colonists,  exceedingly  good  marksmen,  were 
everywhere,  especially  on  the  road  to  Boston,  sta- 
tioned behind  barns  and  stone  walls.  The  soldiers 
ran  £<«•  their  lives  and  with  the  aid  of  fresh  troops 
reached  Boston.  This  little  skirmish  of  a  few 
hundred  men  was  the  beginning  of  the  American 
Revolution.  It  took  place  on  April  19,  1775,  and 
Boston  still  celebrates  the  anniversary  of  the  day. 
Longfellow  has  told  the  whole  storj^  in  his  ''Ride 
of  Paul  Revere." 

The  colonists  had  not  only  spilled  the  King's  tea, 
but  they  had  fired  upon  his  troops.  People  dif- 
fered in  their  ideas  then  just  as  much  as  they  do 
now.  Some  upheld  the  King  and  thought  it  wrong 
to  object  to  anything  that  he  did.  Others  felt 
that  they  were  only  standing  for  their  just  rights. 
Another  congress  was  held,  and  John  Hancock 
was  made  its  president.  Thomas  Jefferson,  a 
young  lawyer  from  Mrginia,  was  present.  He  was 
not  given  to  making  speeches,  but  he  was  a  keen 
student  of  law  and  knew  how  to  use  his  pen. 

War  was  upon  the  colonists,  and  a  commander- 
in-chief  must  be  appointed.  George  Washington' 
of  Virginia  was  chosen,  the  young  man  who  had 
carried   the   message   to   the   French   in   the   Ohio 


STORY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  31'- 

valley.  He  was  now  a  wealthy  planter  of  forty- 
three  years,  devoted  to  the  service  of  his  country. 
He  set  out  for  Boston,  to  take  command  of  the 
militia  and  all  other  troops  that  could  be  raised  to 
defend  the  country.  Traveling  was  slow  in  those 
times,  and  a  great  event  came  to  pass  more  than 
two  weeks  before  he  reached  Boston. 

This  event  was  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill. 
The  colonists  had  taken  a  position  at  the  top  of  a 
hill.  Three  times  the  British  charged  up  the  hill, 
and  three  times  they  were  repulsed.  But  the 
powder  of  the  colonists  gave  out,  and  they  had  no 
bayonets.  Of  course  they  had  to  retreat,  but 
they  retreated  triumphantly,  for  they,  the  un- 
trained militiamen,  had  three  times  "repulsed  the 
British  regulars. 

Washington  took  command  of  the  army  in 
Cambridge,  near  Boston.  It  was  an  army  with- 
out uniforms,  powder,  cannon,  or  any  arrange- 
ments for  providing  food.  The  men  knew  so  little 
'of  the  duties  of  a  soldier  that  when  an  order  was 
given  they  were  quite  inclined  to  suggest  some 
different  plan  of  their  own.  The  first  thing  for 
'Washington  to  do  was  to  train  his  army,  and  one 
winter  was  a  short  time  for  this.  Early  in  the 
following  spring,  however,  he  suddenly  pretended 


82         THE  LITIXE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

to  be  about  to  attack  the  British  troops  in  Boston. 
While  they  were  in  some  confusion,  he  sUpped 
around  to  a  hill  on  the  other  side  of  the  city.  If 
the  British  stayed  in  Boston  they  would  be  bom- 
barded; therefore  they  went  aboard  their  ships  and 
sailed  to  Halifax,  leaving  a  good  supply  of  stores 
and  ammunition  behind  them. 

Thus  far  few  of  the  colonists  had  thought  of  such 
a  thing  as  separating  from  England.  They  were 
fighting  for  their  rights,  not  for  separation.  Wash- 
ington himself  said  that  when  he  took  command  of 
the  army,  he  "abhorred  the  idea  of  independence." 
They  looked  upon  George  III  as  their  King,  and 
Congress  had  sent  him  a  petition  in  the  hope  that 
he  would  right  their  wrongs. 

The  King,  however,  was  bent  upon  having  his 
own  way,  not  upon  righting  anybody's  wrongs,  and 
he  would  not  even  look  at  their  petition.  On  the 
contrary,  he  did  one  thing  that  aroused  the  stem 
anger  of  the  colonists  more  than  anything  else. 
Few  Englishmen  would  take  up  arms  against  their 
own  countrymen,  and  King  George  now  hired 
German  soldiers  to  cross  the  ocean  and  subdue  his 
subjects.  Before  this,  the  colonists  had  looked 
upon  their  disagreement  with  the  King  as  a  sort  of 
family  quarrel  which  would  right  itself  in  the  end, 


STORY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  33 

but  this  hiring  soldiers  from  a  foreign  country  to 
cross  the  ocean  and  fight  them  was  a  different 
matter.  The  King  was  treating  them  Kke  enemies, 
and  they  could  not  remain  his  subjects.  Congress 
appointed  Thomas  Jefferson  and  four  others  to 
prepare  a  Declaration  of  Independence. 

This  was  done  and  the  Declaration  was  signed 
by  representatives  of  the  colonies.  To  put  one's 
name  to  this  paper  took  a  vast  amount  of  courage. 
If  the  King  won,  the  signers  would  be  looked  upon 
as  leaders  of  a  rebellion  and  would  be  promptly 
hanged.  "We  must  all  hang  together,  or  we  shall 
hang  separately,"  declared  the  witty  Benjamin 
Franklin.  As  Charles  Carroll  took  up  the  pen  to 
write  his  name,  some  one  said,  "You  are  in  no 
danger,  for  there  are  so  many  Carrolls  that  the 
King  could  never  find  you."  "I'll  show  him," 
said  Carroll,  and  after  his  name  he  wrote  "of 
Carrollton."  "John  Bull  can  read  my  name  with- 
out spectacles,"  said  John  Hancock,  and  he  wrote 

ST 

his  name  so  boldly  that  it  can  be  read  farther  away 
than  any  other. 

Up^^to  this  time,   Massachusetts  had  been  the 

'scene  of  the  war,  but  the  British  now  planned  to 

take  New  York  City,  the  Hudson  River,  and  Lake 

Champlain.     This  would  separate  the  Middle  and 


34         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

Southern  States  from  New  England,  and  each 
part  of  the  country  could  then  be  conquered  separ- 
ately. Also  it  would  prevent  the  Americans  from 
making  any  attack  upon  Canada  by  the  easy  way 
of  the  river  and  the  lake.  It  was  an  excellent 
plan — if  only  it  could  have  been  carried  out. 

The  British  took  New  York,  and  Washington 
had  to  retreat  across  New  Jersey.  But  now  the 
famous  soldiers  in  Europe  began  to  open  their 
eyes,  for  this  Virginia  planter,  whose  military  edu- 
cation had  come  from  his  own  study  and  from 
fighting  Indians,  was  managing  his  retreat  in  a 
masterly  fashion  that  won  their  interest  and 
admiration. 

This  untaught  general  was  always  doing  some 
'unexpected  thing.  He  had  to  retreat  into  Penn- 
sylvania, but  when  Christmas  came  and  the 
German  troops  in  Trenton  were  carousing,  he 
suddenly  pushed  across  the  Delaware  River  in  the 
midst  of  cakes  of  floating  ice  and  captured  the 
merrymakers  together  with  a  goodly  quantity  of 
military  supplies.  In  ways  like  this,  Washington 
and  the  other  American  generals  harassed  the 
troops  of  King  George  and  managed  affairs  with 
such  skill  that  their  commander  *  had  to  admit 
that  his  plan  for  separating  New  England  from 


STORY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  35 

New  York  had  failed  and'  to  surrender  his  forces 
— about  one  third  of  all  the  King's  troops  in 
America — to  one  of  Washington's  generals  at 
Saratoga. 

In  spite  of  all  that  the  Americans  could  do,  the 
British  took  possession  of  Philadelphia,  Wash- 
ington was  not  strong  enough  to  drive  them  away, 
and  therefore  he  went  into  winter  quarters  at 
Valley  Forge,  about  twenty  miles  from  Phila- 
delphia, where  he  could  keep  close  watch  upon 
them.  It  was  a  cold,  gloomy  place.  His  men  had 
hardly  clothes  enough  to  cover  themselves.  Many 
went  barefooted  for  lack  of  shoes.  Their  log  huts 
were  icy  cold.  Washington  fed  them  at  his  own 
expense,  and  Mrs.  Washington  spent  much  time 
with  him  in  the  dreary  valley,  doing  her  best  to 
cheer  and  encourage  the  men. 

Help  was  coming  and  signs  of  it  had  already 
appeared.  Several  officers  from  European  armies 
had  come  to  aid  the  Americans,  not  as  representing 

'their  countries,  but  as  individuals.  They  came 
from  Poland,  from  Prussia,  and  from  France. 
The  best  lOved  of  them  all  and  dearest  to  the 

'heart  of  Washington  was  the  Marquis  de  Lafayette, 
a  wealthy  French  nobleman.  He  was  only  nine- 
teen years  old,  and  one  of  the  British  generals  called 


36         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUK  COUNTRY 

him  ''the  boy,"  but  he  proved  to  be  an  excellent 
general. 

Still,  no  country  had  come  out  boldly  on  the 
side  of  the  Americans.  The  one  in  which  they  had 
most  hope  was  France,  and  Frankhn  had  been  sent 
to  France  long  before  in  order  to  seek  for  aid. 
But  France  hesitated,  for  why  should  she  join  a 
cause  which  was  sure  to  lose?  After  the  plan  to  cut 
New  England  from  New  York  had  failed,  the  case' 
was  different,  and  the  gloom  of  Valley  Forge  was 
brightened  by  the  promise  of  France  to  lend 
troops  and  money  and  to  recognize  the  United 
States  as  an  independent  nation. 

This  did  not  suit  King  George,  so  he  declared 
war  on  France  and  began  to  try  to  bring  the 
colonists  to  peace.  He  yielded  all  questions  of 
taxation,  and  he  was  more  than  willing  that 
representatives  from  America  should  sit  in  Parlia- 
ment. But  it  was  too  late,  and  for  three  years 
more  the  war  went  on. 

Not  all  the  fighting  was  done  on  land  by  any 
means.  Privateers  sailed  up  and  down  the  coast 
to  capture  or  tiestroy  the  ships  of  the  enemy.  John 
Paul  Jones,  one  of  these  privateers,  was  bold ' 
enough  to  attack  vessels  just  off  the  English  coast 
and  amazed  the  English  navy  by  capturing  them. 


STORY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  37 

Meanwhile,  a  young  surveyor  from  Kentucky, 
George  Rogers  Clark,  collected  a  company  of  back- 
woodsmen and  drove  the  British  out  of  the  country 
north  of  the  Ohio  River,  a  district  which  was  later 
known  as  the  Northwest  Territory. 

The  British  now  set  out  to  conquer  the  South. 
They  had  tried  once  before  and  failed,  but  this 
time  they  took  Savannah  and  overcame  Georgia 
and  South  Carolina.  It  was  not  easy  work 
by  any  means,  for  they  were  opposed  not  only 
by  troops,  but  by  Marion,  "the  Swamp  Fox," 
and  others  who  hid  in  forests  and  swamps  and 
dashed  out  upon  the  enemy  in  just  the  places 
where  they  were  not  expected. 

Washington  sent  General  Greene  to  the  South 
with  some  interesting  orders.  In  obedience  to 
them,  Greene  soon  began  to  retreat  toward  the 
North.  The  British  General  Cornwallis  supposed 
himself  to  be  pursuing  Greene,  but  all  the  while 
Greene  was  leading  him  onward.  Somehow  Corn- 
'wallis  never  could  catch  up  with  Greene  and  when 
he  came  near  Yorktown  in  Virginia  he  stopped. 
Reinforcements  would  soon  come,  he  thought,  and 
'then  he  could  end  this  troublesome  war  and  go 
home  to  England.  Instead  of  that,  the  French 
fleet  blockaded  him  by  sea,  and  Washington  and 


38         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

Lafayette  with  American  and  French  soldiers 
hemmed  him  in  by  land.  Cornwallis  was  a 
brave  man,  but  he  was  helpless.  He  was  obliged 
to  surrender,  while  the  band  played  an  old  song 
called  ''The  World  Turned  Upside  Down,"  and^ 
one  October  morning,  in  1781,  the  watchman  in 
Philadelphia  called  out,  "Past  three  o'clock,  and 
Cornwallis  is  taken!"  There  was  no  more  sleep 
for  any  one  that  morning,  for  bells  rang,  bonfires 
blazed,  people  marched  in  procession  singing 
patriotic  songs,  and  houses  were  illuminated  as 
brilliantly  as  candles  would  permit. 

The  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  in  1783,  and  the 
United  States  of  America  now  held  all  the  territory 
between  Canada  on  the  north,  the  Atlantic  on  the 
east,  Florida  on  the  south,  and  the  Mississippi 
River  on  the  west.  Spain  had  entered  the  war 
against  England,  hoping  to  recover  her  former 
territory  in  America,  but  all  that  she  received  was 
Florida. 

George  III  was  ruler  of  the  little  German 
province  of  Hanover  as  well  as  King  of  England, 
and  when  he  learned  of  Cornwallis's  surrender  he 
at  first  declared  that  he  would  abdicate  the  English' 
throne  and  go  to  Hanover.  Before  long,  however, 
he  changed  his  mind. 


STORY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  39 

Washington  refused  any  payment  for  his  services 
and  asked  only  that  his  expenses  and  what  he  had 
spent  to  pay  and  feed  his  troops  should  be  re- 
funded to  him  whenever  convenient  for  the  country, 
^e  bade  farewell  to  his  fellow  soldiers  and  re- 
turned to  his  home  at  Mount  Vernon,  free  for  the 
rest  of  his  days,  as  he  supposed,  from  the  cares  and 
responsibilities  of  public  life. 


CHAPTER  VI 

HOW  THE  UNITED  STATES  FORMED  ITS 
GOVERNMENT 

The  Revolution  was  over,  and  the  colonies  were 
now  called  the  United  States  of  America,  but, 
although  they  were  states,  they  were  anything  but, 
united.  Each  one  was  looking  out  for  its  own 
interests  and  treated  the  others  as  if  they  were 
foreign  countries.  For  instance,  when  a  New 
Jersey  man  sent  fruit  or  vegetables  into  New 
York  or  Philadelphia,  he  had  to  pay  duty.  New 
Jersey  got  her  revenge  by  making  New  York  pay 
a  yearly  tax  of  nearly  $2000  on  a  lighthouse  which 
New  York  had  built  on  the  New  Jersey  shore. 
Each  state  had  its  own  paper  money,  but  no  state 
would  accept  that  of  the  others. 

Congress  could  make  war  and  peace,  and  it  could 
talk,  but  it  had  little  power  to  do  anything  else. 
It  could  ask  the  states  to  pay  taxes,  but  if  they 
did  not  choose  to  pay,  it  could  do  nothing  further. 
More  than  once  some  state  threatened  to  pay^ 
nothing  toward  Government  expenses  unless  she 
could  have  her  own  way  in  some  special  matter. 
In  regard  to  trade,  some  of  the  states  actually  set 

40 


HOW  GOVERNMENT  W  AS  FORMED  41 

up  for  themselves  and  tried  to  make  their  own 
treaties  with  foreign  countries.  If  a  man  in  one 
state  did  not  choose  to  pay  a  debt  to  a  man  in 
another  state,  there  was  no  powef  to  compel  him 
^to  pay  it.  It  is  small  wonder  that  some  of  the 
wise  folk  of  Europe  laughed  and  said,  "That 
Union  will  never  last.  The  colonies  will  soon  be 
asking  to  be  back  under  English  rule." 

No  one  realizes  what  a  country  without  a  strong 
central  government  fairly  representing  the  people 
would  be  until  he  has  tried  it.  The  Americans 
soon  found  that  their  Government  was  not  strong 
enough  to  protect  them  in  their  just  rights  and  to 
keep  order  in  the  land.  Moreover,  they  had 
fought  seven  years  for  a  fair  representation,  and 
they  were  not  getting  it.  Each  state  sent  one 
member  to  Congress  and  had  one  vote.  As  the 
states  were  very  unequal  in  size,  one  member 
would  represent  perhaps  60,000  people  and  an- 
^  other  five  times  as  many.  This  was  grossly  unjust, 
and  the  people  at  length  took  the  matter  in  hand. 
They  sent  delegates  to  a  convention  held  in  Phila- 
delphia, and  in  that  city  was  written  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States. 

The  Constitution  divided  the  Government  into 
three   parts:   first/  the  legislative   or  law-making 


42         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

power,  that  is,  Congress;  second,  the  judicial,  or 
law-interpreting  power,  that  is,  the  Supreme 
Court;  and  third,  the  executive,  or  law-executing 
power,  that  is*  the  President.  Only  Congress, 
then,  could  make  a  law;  if  there  was  any  doubt, 
about  its  meaning,  the  Supreme  Court  would 
decide;  and  the  President,  made  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  must  see  that  the  law, 
was  executed.  The  matter  of  representation  was 
most  justly  settled  by  allowing  two  senators  to 
every  state,  and  representatives  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  its  inhabitants. 

Washington  had  hoped  to  spend  the  rest  of  his 
life  in  his  home  at  Mount  Vernon,  but  he  yielded  to 
the  wishes  of  his  country  and  became  its  first 
President.  There  was  need  of  wisdom  and  a 
strong  hand,  for  more  than  one  difficulty  must  be 
met  and  overcome.  No  country  can  wage  war 
without  money,  and  the  new  republic  had  bor- 
rowed money  both  of  its  own  citizens  and  of  , 
European  countries.  Alexander  Hamilton  was 
then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  he  took  the 
stand  that  the  Government  ought  to  pay  not  only 
this  money  but  also  what  the  separate  states  had 
borrowed,  since  it  was  all  for  war  expenses.  This 
was  done,  and  credit,  as  valuable  to  a  countrv  as 


HOW  GOVERNMENT  WAS  FORMED  43 

io   a   man   of   business,    was    firmly    established. 

To  raise  this  money  Hamilton  advised  that  on 

certain^  imported  goods  duty  should  be  collected. 

This  would  not  only  pay  our  war  debts  and  provide 

tfunds  to  carry  on  the  Government,  but  it  would 
raise  the  price  of  these  goods  in  America,  and  so 
"protect"    our   manufacturers,    that   is,    make   it 

.possible  for  them  to  compete  with  the  low  wages 
paid  to  workmen  in  Europe.  Another  plan  of 
Hamilton's  was  the  establishment  of  a  Federal 
Bank,  whose  bills  would  be  accepted  in  every  sta.te. 
Washington  refused  a  third  term.  In  1797,  he 
made  his  strong,  wise,  far-seeing  "Farewell  Ad- 
dress" and  returned  to  his  beloved  Mount  Vernon. 
Two  years  later  he  died.  The  words  of  his  eulogy, 
"First  in  war,  first  in  peace,  first  in  the  hearts  of 
his  countrymen,"  have  been  so  often  repeated  that 
they  have  lost  their  force;  but  think  of  them  as  if 
heard  for  the  first  time.  Remember  that  they 
,  were  literally  true.  Has  there  ever  been  another 
man  of  whom  they  could  be  said? 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  STAR-SPANGLED  BANNER 

We  had  had  fully  as  much  war  as  we  wanted,  but-i 
soon  after  the  close  of  Washington's  second  term 
we  had  to  meet  our  old  friend  France  in  battle. 
She  was  angrj'-  because  we  would  not  join  her  in  a* 
war  against  England,  and  her  agents  declared 
that  if  we  did  not  pay  a  large  bribe  we  should  be 
attacked.  "Millions  for  defense,  but  not  one 
cent  for  tribute,"  was  our  reply.  Washington  was 
again  called  upon  to  head  the  army,  but  the  fight- 
ing was  all  on  the  sea,  and  soon  ended  with  a  peace. 
It  was  in  this  war  that  a  new  song,  "Hail  Colum- 
bia," became  popular. 

Before  the  second  war  with  England  took  place, 
our  country  suddenly  became  larger  by  nearly 
1,000,000  square  miles.  The  "Province  of  Louis- 
iana," which  included  Louisiana  and  a  wide  sweep  , 
of  land  to  the  northwest,  had  passed  from  Spain  to 
France.  France  was  a  strong  power  and  might 
be  able  to  shut  us  from  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  , 
River,  or  even  to  found  a  New  France  in  America. 
But  Napoleon,  Emperor  of  France,  expected  war 
with  England  and  he  began  to  fear  that  he  could  not 


THE  STAR-SPANGLED  BANNER  45 

hold  Louisiana  even  if  he  succeeded  in  colonizing  it. 
Therefore  he  offered  it  to  the  United  States  at  a 
rate  of  about  fifteen  dollars  a  square  mile.  Thomas 
Jefferson,   who  was  then  President,   hastened  to 

» close  the  bargain;  and  now  the  United  States  was 
twice  as  large  as  before,  and  the  people  who  had 
pushed    out    beyond    the    Mississippi    River    and 

-made  their  homes  in  the  wilderness  no  longer 
feared  that  they  might  fall  under  the  rule  of  any 
foreign  power. 

Our  second  war  with  England  came  about  be- 
cause of  some  of  her  acts  that  aroused  our  wrath. 
England — and  France,  too — ^interfered  with  our 
commerce  by  seizing  our  vessels  on  the  open  sea; 
but  England's  fashion  of  taking,  or  "impressing," 
any  sailors  whom  she  might  claim  as  Englishmen 
and  forcing  them  into  her  navy  made  Americans 
especially  indignant.  We  were  not  at  all  ready  to 
fight,  but  we  declared  war.     We  failed  in  our  cam- 

.  paigns  in  Canada,  but  we  amazed  England  by 
winning  twelve  battles  out  of  fifteen  on  the  sea. 

.One  of  the  most  famous  encounters  was  between 

,the  American  vessel  "Chesapeake"  and  the  British 
"Shannon."  Captain  Lawrence  of  the  "Chesa- 
peake" fell  mortally  wounded.  His  last  words, 
"Don't  give  up  the  ship!"  are  the  war-cry  of  the 


46         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

American  navy.  These  words  were  on  Commo- 
dore Perry's  flag  when  he  sailed  out  on  Lake  Erie 
in  his  little  fleet  built  of  unseasoned  timber — and 
won  the  day.  He  sent  back  his  report  of  the  battle 
scribbled  on  a  bit  of  paper  from  a  letter,  but  it» 
received  a  warm  welcome,  for  it  said,  "We  have  met 
the  enemy,  and  they  are  ours." 

It  was  during  this  war  that  the  city  of  Wash-^ 
ington  was  burned  and  President  Madison  and  his 
wife  had  to  flee  from  the  White  House.  A  little 
later,  Francis  Scott  Key  of  Baltimore  was  on  board 
a  British  vessel  as  an  envoy  when  the  bombard- 
ment of  Fort  McHenry  began.  In  the  darkness 
he  watched  the  bombs,  waiting  anxiously  for  "the 
dawn's  early  light"  to  mr.ke  sure  whether  "the 
flag  was  still  there."  On  the  back  of  a  letter  he 
wrote  a  poem  which  tells  the  story  of  the  night, 
and  that  poem  is  "The  Star-Spangled  Banner." 

In   the   last   battle   of  the   war,   that   of  New 
Orleans,  the  Americans  were  victorious;  but  it  was, 
a  needless  battle,  for  peace  had  been  made  two 
weeks    earlier.     News    traveled    slowly    in    those 
days. 

The  United  States  was  young,  but  growing 
rapidly.  •  Not  long  after  the  second  war  with 
England,  we  bought  Florida  of  Spain.     Our  west- 


THE  STAR-SPANGLED  BANNER  47 

ern  lands  were  fast  increasing  in  value  because  so 
many  people  were  moving  into  Kentucky,  Tennes- 
see, the  states  north  of  the  Ohio  River,  and  even 
into  the  country  on  the  western  side  of  the  Miss- 
issippi River,  which  was  then  the  "Far  West." 
There  was  a  constant  procession  of  these  emigrants, 
rumbling  along  in  great  clumsy  wagons  covered 
jvith  canvas.  Cattle  and  horses  and  sheep  were 
often  driven  behind  the  wagons,  frequently  by 
bands  of  slaves. 

The  matter  of  slavery  was  beginning  to  make 
trouble.  At  first  all  the  colonies  held  slaves,  but 
slavery  did  not  pay  on  the  small  farms  of  the 
North,  while  it  did  pay  on  the  Southern  planta- 
tions, especially  after  the  invention  of  the  cotton- 
gin,  in  1793,  made  cotton  growing  profitable. 
Moreover,  there  was  almost  from  the  first  a  feeling 
against  it  in  the  North,  and  even  before  the  close 
of  the  Revolution  several  of  the  Northern  States 
,  passed  laws  forbidding  slaveholding. 

So  many  people  moved  to  the  westward  that  soon 
new  states  were  formed.  Missouri  asked  to  be 
^admitted  into  the  Union.  But  should  she  come 
in  as  a  slave  state  or  a  free  state?  In  the  Senate,  the 
members  were  equally  divided,  half  for  slavery  and 
half  against  it.     A  new  state  would  give  a  majority 


48         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

to  one  side,  and  no  laws  would  be  permitted  to  pass 
that  did  not  favor  that  side.  Neither  party  would 
yield,  and  it  looked  as  if  the  irresistible  force  had 
at  last  met  the  immovable  body. 

It  chanced,  however,  that  Maine,  too,  was  ready, 
to  be  admitted  as  a  state.  This  gave  an  oppor- 
tunity to  make  a  bargain.  The  pro-slavery 
senators  agreed  to  vote  for  the  admission  of  Maine 
as  a  free  state  provided  the  anti-slavery  senators 
would  agree  to  vote  for  the  admission  of  Missouri 
as  a  slave  state.  This  was  the  famous  "Missouri 
Compromise."  It  did  no  permanent  good,  for  the 
Senate  was  still  evenly  divided,  but  it  put  off  the 
break  for  a  number  of  years. 

The  real  difficulty  was  not  only  about  slavery, 
but  also  about  the  wishes  of  North  and  South,  for 
these  wishes  were  in  some  ways  exactly  opposite. 
The  North  had  many  manufactories,  and  there- 
fore wanted  a  duty  on  imported  goods;  while  the 
South,  which  manufactured  little,  wanted  to  buy 
imported  articles  as  cheaply  as  possible.  Again, 
Northern  manufacturers  wanted  to  sell  their  goods 
to  the  settlers  in  the  *Tar  West,"  and  so  did  all 
they  could  to  induce  the  Government  to  build 
canals  and  deepen  waterways  in  order  to  make 
easy  routes  to  the  West.     The  South  cared  nothing 


THE  STAR-SPANGLED  BANNER  49 

about  carrying  goods  to  the  West,  and  objected  to 
paying  taxes  for  the  benefit  of  the  North.  It  is 
no  wonder  that  North  and  South  disagreed. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

HOW  THE  QUESTIONS  OF  BOUNDARY 
W^RE  SETTLED 

This  matter  of  slavery  or  no  slavery,  or  rather, 
of  the  differing  wishes  of  North  and  South,  came 
to  the  front  whenever  a  new  state  asked  for  admit- 
tance. Sometimes  it  was  complicated  with  other 
questions.  What  is  now  Texas  had  been  found  to 
be  a  rich  and  fertile  country,  and  some  20,000 
Americans  had  made  it  their  home.  It  was  under 
Mexican  rule,  but  Mexico  was  glad  to  have  the 
country  developed  and  had  willingly  granted  a 
large  tract  of  land. 

After  a  while,  however,  the  Americans  became 
too  independent  to  please  the  Mexican  GoveruT 
ment,  and  it  was  made  clear  that  they  were  not 
especially  welcome.  At  .this  the  settlers  took  up 
their  guns  and  there  was  warfare.  The  Americans 
won  the  day,  drove  away  the  Mexican  forces,  and 
established  the  "Republic  of  Texas."  They  asked 
to  be  admitted  to  the  Union  as  a  slave  state. 
Then  the  North  took  alarm.  This  new  repubhc' 
could  easily  be  cut  up  into  eight  or  ten  states,  each 
of  which  would  have  two  votes  in  the  Senate,  and 

so 


HOW  BOUNDARIES  WERE  SETTLED  ol 

the  Senate  would  then  be  in  the  hands  of  slave- 
holders. For  this  reason,  several  years  passed 
before  Texas  became  a  state;  she  v/as  finally  ad- 
mitted in  1845.  Her  flag  contained  a  single  star, 
and  that  is  why  she  was  called  the  "Lone  Star 
State." 

The  trouble  with  Mexico  set  people  to  thinking 
about  other  territory  whose  ow^nership  v/as  un- 
certain, and  there  was  a  general  desire  to  have 
boundary  questions  settled.  One  of  these  con- 
cerned the  northern  part  of  Maine.  When  that 
line  had  been  drawn,  the  question, of  the  boundary 
of  the  Oregon  country,  which  is  now  Oregon, 
Washington,  and  British  Columbia,  was  taken  up. 
Should  latitude  46°  or  54°  40'  be  the  northwest 
boundary  of  the  United  States?  England  said  it 
ought  to  be  46°  because  Sir  Francis  Drake  had 
discovered  the  land  and  three  English  explorers 
had  visited  it.  The  United  States  claimed  all 
territory  up  to  54°  40'  because  soon  after  the  Revo- 
lution an  American  had  discovered  the  Columbia 
River  and  an  American  expedition  had  explored 
the  stream,  and — strongest  claim  of  all — some  six 
thousand  Americans  had  made  settlements  in  that 
country.  Naturally,  they  insisted  upon  knowing 
whether  they  were  living  under  English  or  Ameri- 


52         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

can  rule.  The  whole  United  States  became  inter- 
ested, and  the  people  who  were  ready  to  seize  a 
gun  to  settle  every  dispute  filled  the  land  with 
cries  of  "Fifty-four  forty  or  fight!"  There  proved 
to  be  no  need  of  fighting,  for  commissioners  from 
England  and  the  United  States  settled  the  matter 
by  a  compromise  which  drew  the  line  at  49°. 

A  third  question  of  boundary  was  not  settled  so 
peaceably.  Mexico  had  never  admitted  the  inde- 
pendence of  Texas  or  the  right  of  the  United  States 
to  annex  the  Texan  country;  and  she  declared  that 
in  any  case,  Texas  was  bounded  by  the  Nueces 
River,  while  the  Texans  insisted  that  it  extended 
to  the  Rio  Grande.  War  with  Mexico  followed, 
but  it  was  not  a  war  in  which  the  whole  country 
was  united,  for  the  larger  Texas  might  be,  the 
stronger  would  be  the  slave  power.  "Remember 
the  Alamo!"  was  the  battle-cry  of  the  war,  because 
in  the  struggle  between  Texas  and  Mexico  a  little 
group  of  Americans  long  held  a  fort  named  the 
Alamo  against  ten  times  their  number.  When  at  ' 
last  they  had  to  yield  only  six  were  left  alive;  and 
these  six,  after  being  promised  safety,  were  brutally 
murdered  by  the  Mexicans.  Soon,  however,  the  * 
American  troops  made  a  victorious  march  into  the 
City  of  Mexico  and  that  really  ended  the  war. 


HOW  BOUNDARIES  WERE  SETTLED  53 

Mexico  still  owned  more  than  half  a  million 
square  miles  in  what  is  now  the  United  States. 
Part  of  this  was  the  present  state  of  California. 
Many  thousand  Indians  lived  in  that  part  of  the 
country.  The  Spanish  priests  had  gathered  them 
into  settlements  called  missions,  and  had  taught 
them  the  Christian  faith,  agriculture,  and  civilized 
ways  of  living.  After  a  while,  the  Mexican  form 
of  government  changed,  and  the  missions  decHned. 

American  settlers  had  made  their  way  to  Cali- 
fornia, and  when  the  Mexican  War  broke  out, 
they  began  to  fear  lest  the  Mexicans  should  attack 
them.  With  the  help  of  an  American  exploring 
expedition  and  a  frigate  off  the  coast,  the  Ameri- 
cans held  the  state.  According  to  the  treaty  made 
at  the  close  of  the  war,  we  kept  all  land  north  of  the 
Rio  Grande  and  Gila  rivers,  paying  Mexico  nearly 
$36,000,000,  or  about  ten  cents  an  acre.  So  it 
was  that  by  the  Louisiana  Purchase  from  France, 
the  Florida  Purchase  from  Spain,  the  Texan  An- 
'nexation,  and  the  Mexican  Cessions,  the  United 
States,  which  began  as  a  few  little  colonies  on  the 
Atlantic  Coast,  spread  across  the  continent  to  the 
'Pacific  Ocean  and  far  sou^ilTiiito  the  lands  bordering 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

Only  a  few  days  before  the  treaty  was  signed, 


54         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

gold  was  discovered  in  a  California  stream.  Now 
began  a  frantic  stampede  from  all  parts  of  the 
country  to  California.  Men  on  horseback,  or  in 
the  great  canvas-covered  wagons  known  as  prairie 
schooners,  or  on  foot,  made  a  mad  rush  for  the 
land  of  gold.  Many  paid  their  last  cent  for  a 
passage  by  sea,  feeling  sure  that  they  could  soon 
fill  their  empty  pockets  in  the  West.  So  many 
thousands  went  that  in  less  than  three  years  after 
this  discovery,  California  had  population  enough 
to  be  admitted  as  a  state. 

With  every  gain  of  territory  the  question  "Slav- 
ery or  no  slavery?"  became  more  and  more  promi- 
nent. Often  "compromises"  were  made  in  an  at- 
tempt to  satisfy  both  North  and  South.  For 
instance,  when  California  was  admitted  as  a  free 
state — to  please  the  North — the  Fugitive  Slave  Law 
was  passed — to  please  the  South .  This  required  even 
the  free  states  to  seize  and  return  to  slavery  any 
slave  who  might  have  escaped  to  their  territory. 
The  North  was  indignant,  and  some  states  declared' 
it  unlawful  to  assist  in  slave-catching.  A  system 
called  the  "Underground  Railroad"  was  formed  in 
parts  of  the  North  on  the  way  to  Canada,  by  which* 
an  escaped  slave  could  be  passed  from  one  house  to 
another  until  he  was  safely  over  the  Canadian  line ; 


HOW  BOUNDARIES  WERE  SETTLED  56 

The  South  was  equally  aroused  by  the  attempt 
of  John  Brown  at  Harper's  Ferry  to  lead  the 
Negroes  of  the  South  to  free  themselves.  The 
wrath  of  both  sides  was  fanned  to  a  flame  by  the 
appearance  of  Mrs.  Stowe'-s  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin," 
picturing  slavery  from  a  Northern  point  of  view. 

In  Washington's  "Farewell  Address"  he  had 
warned  Americans  that  unity  of  government  was 
the  support  of  that  liberty  which  Americans 
prized  so  highly.  Nevertheless,  there  had  been 
more  than  once,  and  from  different  parts  of  the 
country,  threats  of  separation.  "If  remaining 
in  the  Union  is  an  injury  to  a  state,  that  state  has 
a  right  to  secede,"  declared  the  South.  "The 
secession  of  a  state  would  weaken  and  otherwise 
injure  the  whole  Union;  therefore  no  state  has  a 
right  to  secede,"  declared  the  North.  "I  believe 
this  Government  cannot  permanently  endure  .half 
slave  and  half  free — I  do  not  expect  the  house  to 
fall,  but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided," 
said  a  tall,  thoughtful  man  in  Illinois  whose  name 
was  Abraham  Lincoln.  Two  years  later,  this  man 
became  President  of  the  United  States — the  great, 
"patient,  steadfast  President  who  was  to  save  the 
Union  and  to  bring  slavery  to  an  end. 


CHAPTER  IX 
^•OUR  FEDERAL  UNION.  IT  MUST  BE  PRESERVED" 

The  Republican  party,  which  elected  Lincoln, 
was  determined  that  slavery  should  not  spread, 
but  had  no  idea  of  interfering  with  it  where  it 
already  existed.  The  South,  however,  feared 
that  there  would  be  interference,  and  more  than 
two  months  before  the  new  President  was  in- 
augurated. South  Carolina  declared  herself  no 
longer  a  member  of  the  Union.  Six  other  Southern 
states  followed  her  lead,  and  formed  the  "Con- 
federate States  of  America."  According  to  this 
Confederation,  slavery  was  to  be  recognized  and 
the  protective  tariff  was  to  be  abolished.  Jefferson 
Davis  of  Mississippi  was  elected  President  of  the 
Confederacy. 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  Government  property 
in  the  South.  On  South  Carolina  soil,  for  instance, 
there  were  post  offices,  lighthouses,  and  other 
buildings,  and  in  the  harbor  were  Fort  Moultrie 
and  Fort  Sumter.  ''The  land  on  which  these  stand 
is  ours,"  declared  the  Confederacy,  "but  we  are^ 
ready  to  pay  for  the  buildings,"  and  agents  were 
sent  to  Washington  to  make  this  arrangement. 

56 


OUR  FEDERAL  UNION  57 

Major  Anderson,  who  commanded  at  Fort 
Moultrie,  was  convinced  that  these  agents  would 
not  succeed.  He  found  that  troops  were  being 
brought  together  and  drilled;  and  he  spiked  the  guns 
of  Fort  Moultrie  and  moved  his  men  to  Fort 
Sumter,  which  could  be  defended  more  easily  in 
case  of  an  attack.  Here  they  were  bombarded 
by  the  Confederate  forces  until  much  of  the  fort 
had  been  burned,  the  rest  of  it  was  ablaze,  and  no 
food  except  salt  pork  remained.  Then,  and  not 
till  then.  Major  Anderson  surrendered.  This  was 
the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War. 

Over  the  country  flashed  the  word,  "The  flag 
of  our  country  has  been  fired  upon!"  and  the 
North  rose  like  one  man.  "Why  did  you  volun- 
teer?" a  veteran  of  this  war  was  asked.  "Why? 
Why?"  he  repeated.  "It  was  in  the  air.  I  could 
no  more  help  going  than  I  could  help  breathing." 
Before  long,  Virginia  and  all  the  states  south  of 
her  southern  boundary  had  joined  the  Confedera- 
'tion.  The  people  of  the  "Border  States,"  Dela- 
ware, Maryland,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri,  were 
divided;  some  joined  the  Union  ranks,  others  the 
IGonfederate.  West  Virginia  and  all  other  states 
east  of  the  Mississippi,  together  with  Kansas, 
California,  and  Oregon,  stood  by  the  Union.     The 


58         THE  LITIXE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

rest  of  the  country  was  then  made  up  of  terri- 
tories. Many  people  in  Virginia  and  the  Border 
States  took  the  Southern  side,  not  because  they 
believed  in  slavery,  but  because  they  denied  the 
right  of  the  Federal  Government  to  "coerce"  the 
states  that  had  first  seceded  into  remaining  in  the 
Union  against  their  will. 

The  "front"  in  1861  was  the  northern  boundary 
of  the  Confederate  States,  and  extended  from  Vir- 
ginia into  Missouri.  Each  army  aimed  at  captur- 
ing the  capital  of  the  other.  Between  these  two 
capitals,  Washington  and  Richmond,  was  a  Con- 
federate force  and,  not  far  from  Washington  was 
fought  the  Battle  of  Bull  Run.  The  Union  troops 
were  routed;  but  this  was  such  a  surprise  to  the 
North  that  it  aroused  a  stronger  determination  to 
win  than  a  victory  would  have  done. 

The  Confederates  wished  to  push  up  North  as 
far  as  possible.  The  Union  forces  aimed  at 
driving  the  Confederates  back  and  also  at  cutting 
through  the  Confederate  States  and  separating 
them  so  that  one  part  could  not  come  to  the  help 
of  the  other.  That  is  why  an  army  was  sent  along 
the  northern  boundary  of  Tennessee  to  the  Missis-* 
sippi  River,  to  secure  control  of  that  river.  The 
commander  of  this  army  was  General  Grant.     He 


OUR  FEDERAL  UNION  59 

had  grown  up  very  simply  on  a  farm,  had  made 
his  way  to  West  Point,  and  had  served  in  the 
Mexican  War.  Then  he  had  left  the  army  and 
had  tried  one  thing  after  another,  not  succeeding 
remarkably  well  in  anything.  He  did  not  like 
war,  but  of  course  when  need  came  he  offered  his 
services  to  the  Government,  and  it  was  soon  seen 
that  he  had  a  way  of  carrying  through  whatever 
lie  undertook.  He  now  pushed  on  to  the  Missis- 
sippi River,  then  to  the  South  beyond  the  northern 
boundary  of  Louisiana. 

Meanwhile,  the  Union  troops  in  the  East  had 
been  trying  to  reach  Richmond,  but  had  been 
driven  back  by  General  Lee,  commander-in-chief 
of  the  Confederate  forces.  Lee  was  a  West  Point 
graduate  and  had  also  served  in  Mexico.  He  was 
recognized  as  a  soldier  of  great  ability,  and  at  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war  he  had  been  asked  to  take 
command  of  the  Union  army.  Never  was  a  man 
in  a  more  difficult  position.  His  native  state, 
Virginia,  had  seceded,  and  Lee  decided  to  stand 
by  Virginia  rather  than  the  Union,  because  he 
believed  that  his  state  had  the  first  claim  upon  his 
loyalty. 

The  Confederates  now  pushed  north  and  the 
Union  troops  pushed  south,  but  both  were  unsuc- 


60         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

cessful.  General  Lee  made  a  second  invasion  of 
the  North,  and  in  the  three-days'  Battle  of  Gettys- 
burg, in  Pennsylvania,  he  was  repulsed.  On  the 
day  after  this  battle,  General  Grant  took  Vicks- 
burg  in  the  West,  and  in  a  few  months  the  entire 
Mississippi  was  held  by  the  Union,  and  the  states 
west  of  it  were  separated  from  the  rest  of  the 
Confederacy. 

General  Grant  was  now  made  Lieutenant  General 
in  command  of  all  the  United  States  troops. 
General  Sherman  was  sent  to  subdue  the  Confed- 
erate forces  in  northern  Georgia,  while  Grant 
himself  should  overpower  Lee  and  take  Richmond. 
Both  succeeded.  Sherman  made  his  famous  march 
to  the  sea.  A  swath  sixty  miles  wide  was  cut 
through  the  heart  of  Georgia  by  his  army,  destroy- 
ing railroads  and  telegraph  lines,  bridges,  build- 
ings, and  supplies.  He  then  entered  Savannah. 
General  Grant  was  attacking  the  Confederates 
about  Richmond,  General  Lee  was  forced  to  sur- 
render, and  the  Confederacy  had  come  to  an  end.' 

This  is  in  brief  the  story  of  the  Civil  War  on  the 
land.  The  Union  navy  was  as  hard  at  work  as  the 
army.  It  was  by  its  help  that  the  Mississippi  and* 
other  rivers  were  won  for  the  Union.  It  captured 
forts  and  seaports  and  got  control  of  bays  all  along 


OUR  FEDERAL  UNION  61 

the  coast.  One  of  the  most  famous  naval  battles 
was  that  between  the  "Merrimac" — whose  name 
the  Confederates  had  changed  to  "Virginia"  when 
they  captured  it  and  made  it  into  an  ironclad — 
aad  the  "Monitor,"  a  new  style  of  boat  invented 
by  John  Ericsson.  "It  looks  like  a  cheesebox  on  a 
raft/'  declared  the  sailors  when  it  first  appeared; 
but  it  was  a  powerful  cheesebox,  for  the  "Merri- 
mac," which  had  crushed  one  vessel,  burned 
another,  and  was  ready  to  destroy  a  third,  could 
not  make  any  impression  upon  it.  Neither 
"Merrimac"  nor  "Monitor"  could  hurt  the  other, 
and  after  four  hours  of  fighting  the  "Merrimac" 
withdrew.  The  daily  papers  did  not  come  out  in  big 
headlines,  and  few  people  realized  the  importance 
of  this  engagement;  but  nevertheless  it  put  an  end  to 
wooden  navies  and  thus  changed  all  naval  warfare. 
Another  part  of  the  work  of  the  Union  navy  was 
to  blockade  the  Southern  coast  and  keep  away 
supplies.  Many  other  vessels  besides  warships, 
even  tugs  and  ferryboats,  were  called  upon  to 
help,  for  to  blockade  a  coast  as  long  as  ours  is  no 
small  matter.  The  South  was  ready  to  pay  any 
price  for  such  articles  as  medicine,  powder,  clothes,, 
etc.,  and  England  and  France  were  in  desperate 
need  of  cotton  to  keep  their  mills  going.     Anyone 


62         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

who  could  succeed  in  running  the  blockade  with  a 
load  of  supplies  needed  by  the  South  and  could 
escape  with  a  load  of  cotton  for  England  was  sure 
of  making  a  large  sum  of  money  out  of  the  voyage. 
Russia  stood  firmly  by  the  Union,  but  there  was 
danger  that  England  and  France  would  help  the 
Confederates  in  order  to  get  cotton.  President 
Lincoln's  "Emancipation  Proclamation"  put  an 
end  to  that.  The  President  is  Commander-in- 
chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  and  in  time  of  war  he 
is  given  far  more  power  than  would  be  proper  at 
any  other  time.  President  Lincoln  declared  all 
slaves  in  the  Confederate  States  to  be  free.  This 
act  won  friends  in  Europe,  because  the  masses  of 
both  the  English  and  the  French  people,  even  those 
factory  workers  who  were  out  of  employment  for 
lack  of  cotton,  were  strongly  opposed  to  slaver J^ 
Some  members  of  the  English  Government  who 
had  favored  the  Confederacy  could  now  do  nothing 
more  than  to  shut  their  eyes  to  the  fact  that 
privateers  and  blockade  runners  were  being  fitted 
out  in  English  ports.  These  vessels,  especially 
the  "Alabama,"  did  so  much  harm'  to  Unioja 
shipping  that  after  peace  was  declared  England 
was  required  to  pay  a  bill  of  $15,500,000  to  the 
United    States.     This    she    did   within   a   year. 


OUR  FEDERAL  UNION  63 

During  the  Civil  War  both  prices  and  taxes 
were  high.  The  Government  must  have  money, 
and  the  only  way  to  borrow  it  was  to  pay  enough 
interest  to  induce  people  to  buy  Government 
bonds.  In  1917  our  Government  could  borrow 
money  at  three  and  one-half  per  cent;  but  during 
the  dark  days  of  the  Civil  War,  when  it  was  possible 
t.Viat  the  Union  would  be  divided  and  its  bonds 
would  never  be  redeemed,  the  Government  had  to 
pay  on  one  issue  of  bonds  seven  and  three-tenths 
per  cent  interest,  and  on  another  six  per  cent  in 
gold,  which  was  at  one  time  worth  $2.86  in  paper. 
In  the  North,  trade  and  manufactures  were 
prosperous,  but  in  the  South  matters  were  far  dif- 
ferent. The  South  had  been  the  field  of  battle. 
Towns,  plantations,  and  railroads  had  been  des- 
troyed. Horses,  cattle,  pigs,  and  chickens  had 
disappeared.  Thousands  of  wealthy  families  had 
lost  everything.  There  was  little  manufacturing 
to  be  taxed,  and  the  blockade  prevented  exporta- 
tion. The  Confederacy  had  to  issue  an  immense 
amount  of  paper  money,  and  as  hope  of  success 
^ew  less  and  less,  the  value  of  this  paper  money 
declined.  "I  had  one  new  dress  during  the  war," 
said  a  Southern  woman.  "It  w^as  a  calico,  and  it 
cost  $600  in  Confederate  money." 


64         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

During  the  times  of  "reconstruction"  many- 
difficult  questions  arose.  The  wise  brain  and  kind 
heart  that  would  have  solved  them  could  no 
longer  be  called  upon,  for,  only  a  few  days  after 
Lee's  surrender,  President  Lincoln  was  assassinated 
by  a  Southern  sympathizer.  He  was  deeply 
mourned  by  both  North  and  South,  for,  although 
he  had  done  everything  in  his  power  to  overcome 
the  Confederacy,  the  South  realized  that  this  man 
of  tender  sympathies  and  generous  heart  would 
have  been  their  best  friend. 

Out  of  all  this  loss  had  come  some  great  gains. 
Slavery  had  been  abolished  forever.  The  question 
whether  a  state  could  leave  the  Union  had  been 
settled.  All  the  rest  of  the  world  had  seen  for 
themselves  that  the  United  States  had  "come  to 
stay." 


CHAPTER  X 

TO  THE  FAR  WEST 

There  is  an  interesting  map  of  the  United  States 
on  which  an  irregular  row  of  stars  runs  from  east  to 
west,  each  marked  with  a  date.  The  first  star  is  a 
little  way  east  of  Baltimore,  and  is  marked  "1790." 
'?he  last  one  is  nearly  south  of  the  center  of  In- 
diana, and  is  marked  "1910."  This  means  that 
in  1790,  our  center  of  population  was  near  Balti- 
more, but  that  it  has  gradually  moved  to  Indiana. 

To  move  the  center  of  population  even  a  few 
miles  shows  that  a  vast  number  of  people  have 
gone  to  the  westward.  This  emigration  began 
away  back  in  colonial  times.  People  often  went 
for  better  land  or  to  get  more  room.  If  there  was 
any  difference  of  opinion  among  the  people  of  a 
colony,  it  was  not  uncommon  for  one  party  to 
leave  the  settlement  and  found  a  new  one  for 
themselves.  In  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  for 
instance,  the  governor  thought  that  the  govern- 
ment should  be  in  the  hands  of  the  wisest  of  the 
people;  but  the  pastor  thought  that  every  man 
ought  to  have  the  right  to  vote.  There  seems  to 
have  been  no  quarrel  between  the  two  dignitaries, 

65 


66         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

but  the  colonists  quietly  divided,  and  the  pastor 
and  his  followers  marched  off  with  their  household 
goods  and  their  cattle  to  the  fertile  lands  of  the 
Connecticut  valley,  and  there  founded  Hartford, 
thus  moving  the  center  of  population  just  a  bit 
farther  west.  « 

There  was  not  much  pleasure  in  journeying  in 
those  days,  or  indeed  for  many  years  after  the 
Revolution.  What  were  called  roads  were  of  tea 
deep  in  dust  in  dry  weather  and  were  swamps  in 
wet.  Much  of  the  journeying  westward  w^as  done 
on  horseback,  although  there  were  sometimes 
stage-coaches  to  be  found,  and  occasionally  a  river 
flowed  in  the  right  direction  and  made  it  possible 
for  the  emigrant  to  enjoy  all  the  luxuries  of  a  raft 
or  even  of  some  queerly  shaped  boat.  Both  by 
land  and  by  water,  there  was  danger  of  being  at- 
tacked by  Indians.  The  red  men  understood  per- 
fectly that  the  coming  of  the  white  settlers  would 
drive  them  from  their  hunting  grounds,  and  they 
did  their  best  to  protect  their  rights.  Sometimes* 
a  single  Indian  hidden  in  a  forest  shot  at  the 
passers  by  on  a  raft;  sometimes  whole  tribes  at- 
tacked again  and  again  the  little  groups  of  settlers^ 

About  the  time  of  the  second  war  with  England, 
steamboats  began  to  move  up  and  down  some  of 


1^0  THE  FAR  WEST  67 

the  rivers.  They  were  clumsy,  awkward  craft, 
but  people  gazed  at  them  with  admiration,  for  they 
could  actually  sail  against  the  current  at  a  fair 
rate  of  speed.  A  few  years  later,  a  national  road 
was  built  from  Maryland  to  Wheeling,  West  Vir- 
ginia. To  journey  on  this  was  quite  the  aristocracy 
of  traveling,  for  there  were  stage-coaches  with 
frequent  relays  of  horses,  and  there  were  taverns 
along  the  way ,  built  of  logs  and  often  badly  crowded, 
but  real  taverns  nevertheless.  Wherever  any  one 
went,  families  and  companies  were  seen  on  their 
way  to  make  new  homes  in  the  West  or  South. 
This  became  a  much  less  serious  undertaking  than 
it  had  been  in  earlier  years,  for  the  new  routes, 
especially  the  Erie  Canal  across  the  State  of  New 
York,  made  it  so  much  easier  and  cheaper  for 
Western  farmers  to  get  their  tools  and  Eastern 
conveniences.  Then,  too,  between  1830  and  1841 
the  first  steam  railroads  appeared,  and  the  cars 
went  plunging  and  jolting  along  at  the  dangerous 
rate  of  eight  or  ten  miles  an  hour. 

But  the  enterprising  pioneers  could  not  wait  for 
railroads.  Thousands  sought  the  unknown  country 
of  Oregon,  some  journeying  by  the  "Oregon  Trail," 
a  rough  track  from  Missouri  to  the  Northwest, 
others  sailing  around  Cape  Horn.    The  discovery 


68         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

of  gold,  as  has  been  mentioned,  sent  thousands  to 
California,  some  by  the  old  routes,  others  by- 
steamer  to  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  across  the 
Isthmus  on  muleback,  and  then  by  steamer  to  San 
Francisco.  A  few  years  later,  gold  was  found  in 
Colorado.  Another  frantic  rush  began,  and  within 
tv/o  years  Denver  had  become  a  city.  After  the 
Civil  War,  thousands  of  the  returning  soldiers  took 
up  farms  in  the  West  or  South;  but  even  during  tlje 
war,  the  Homestead  Act  passed,  which  permitted 
a  settler  to  take  up  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of 
land  for  a  home.  If  he  persevered  and  cultivated 
it  for  five  years,  he  might  become  its  owner  by  the 
payment  of  a  small  fee. 

These  settlers  soon  demanded  railroads,  and  the 
old  Oregon  Trail  became  useful  as  a  roadbed.  By 
1869  there  was  a  railroad  and  also  a  telegraph  line 
across  the  American  Continent  from  ocean  to 
ocean.  Then  there  was  emigration  indeed,  by 
tens  of  thousands.  Mines  were  opened,  farms 
were  cultivated,  cities  grew  up  in  a  night.  Thg 
territories  developed  rapidly  and  more  and  more 
of  them  began  to  call  for  admission  to  the  Union. 
The  "Great  American  Desert"  of  the  earlier  atlases 

T 

proved  to  be  ready  to  yield  lavish  crops  as  soon  as 
irrigation  had  satisfied  its  thirst.     Fruit  and  grain 


TO  THE  FAR  WEST  69 

and  lumber  were  soon  produced  on  the  Pacific  Slope 
as  well  as  gold  and  silver.  Commerce  with  South 
America,  Asia,  and  Australia  made  a  beginning. 
The  beauties  and  the  climate  of  California  made  it 
the  favorite  pleasure  ground  for  Eastern  people. 

^Not  very  far  north  of  California  is  Alaska,  which 
we  bought  of  Russia  soon  after  the  Civil  War  for 
$7,200,000.  A  few  people  grumbled  about  this 
"pxtravagance"  and  declared  that  the  only  in- 
habitants of  our  new  territory  were  seals  and  polar 
bears.  But  surely  no  one  need  grumble  about 
wasting  the  money  of  the  United  States,  for  in  gold 
and  furs  our  ''refrigerator,"  as  some  called  it,  has 
already  paid  for  itself  many  times  over. 

The  last  large  tract  of  land  to  be  opened  to  free 
settlement  under  the  Homestead  Act  was  Okla- 
homa, which  the  Government  had  bought  of  the 
Indians.  In  1889,  it  was  announced  that  this 
tract  of  40,000  square  miles  would  be  open  to 
settlers  on  April  22,  at  exactly  twelve  o'clock, 
^ore  than  100,000  people  camped  close  to  the 
border  of  the  territory,  and  the  instant  that  the 
bugle  signal  w^as  given,  they  dashed  across  the 
line  to  be  the  first  to  claim  the  special  places  that 
they  had  selected  on  the  map.  In  Guthrie,  four 
streets  were  laid  out  before  three  o'clock  with  can- 


70         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

vas  shops  and  offices  and  a  bank.  One  hour 
later,  a  newspaper  was  issued  and  a  city  council 
elected.  Only  eighteen  years  later,  Oklahoma 
was  admitted  as  a  state. 

Not  all  the  settlers  of  the  West  were  native 
Americans  by  any  means.  There  have  been  mai^y 
wars  in  Europe,  and  people  who  in  this  way  had 
lost  their  homes  or  property  or  sought  to  better 
themselves  came  hopefully  across  the  Atlantic  to 
the'  country  that  would  give  them  land.  In  the 
South,  it  was  cheaper  for  a  planter  to  keep  slaves 
than  to  pay  wages  to  white  men,  and  therefore 
most  of  these  immigrants  pushed  on  to  the  West  or 
North.  As  steamboat  fares  grew  less,  the  number 
of  immigrants  increased,  especially  if  there  were 
hard  times  in  Europe,  or  if  the  government  of  any 
European  country  was  oppressive.  The  number 
of  these  immigrants  grew  larger  year  by  year 
until,  in  1910,  more  than  a  million  stepped  off  the 
gangplank  into  the  United  States.   . 

For  a  long  while  any  one  was  admitted  who  chose 
to  come,  but  now  we  are  more  careful.  We  want 
our  country  to  continue  to  be  "the  land  of  the  free 
and  the  home  of  the  brave,"  and  we  are  glad  to 
welcome  people  from  other  countries  who  wish  to 
become  loyal   citizens.     It  is  not  just,   however, 


TO  THE  FAR  WEST  71 

-0  these  people  to  admit  criminals  or  anarchists 
jr  persons  with  contagious  diseases  or  those  who 
lave  not  money  enough  to  support  them  until 
:hey  can  find  work.  Such  persons  are  refused 
entrance  to  our  country,  and  the  steamship  line 
iihgit  brought  them  over  must  carry  them  back  free 
jf  charge. 

This  reform  was  badly  needed.  Another  of 
jcgial  importance  w^as  what  is  known  as  Civil 
service  Reform.  In  1829,  an  honest,  fearless  man 
dy  the  name  of  Andrew  Jackson  became  President . 
Unfortunately,  he  was  as  opinionated  as  he  was 
"earless,  and  if  a  man  did  not  agree  with  him  he  was 
;ure  that  the  man  was  stupid  and  willful.  There 
s  an  old  cartoon  of  Jackson  dressed  as  a  house- 
keeper and  brooming  a  group  of  men  out  of  the 
dtchen.  This  shows  what  he  did  to  the  men  in 
jrovernment  office,  for  he  turned  out  more  than 
)ne  thousand  of  them,  filling  their  places  with 
nen  of  his  own  political  party.  Naturally,  as 
soon  as  a  President  of  the  opposing  party  came  in, 
le  turned  out  Jackson's  men  and  put  in  political 
Tiends  of  his  own.  This  was  the  beginning  of  what 
s  known  as  the  ''spoils  system."  Up  to  Jackson's 
:ime,  postmasters,  clerks,  and  other  holders  of 
uinor    offices    under    the    Government    had    been 


72         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

selected  for  their  ability  and  had  been  kept  in 
office  even  if  the  opposing  party  came  into  power. 
This  was  changed  now,  and  it  became  the  custom 
with  each  new  administration  to  "turn  the  rascals 
out,"  that  is,  to  discharge  those  office-holders  who 
were  of  the  opposing  political  party  and  put  jn 
those  who  had  helped  to  elect  the  new  President. 

Such  a  method  of  managing  any  private  business 
would  certainly  be  most  foolish ,  and  it  was  equa^y 
foolish  in  Government  matters.  The  result  was 
that  men  were  often  not  in  office  long  enough  to 
learn  how  to  do  their  work  in  the  best  way.  Some 
did  not  care  whether  it  was  well  done  or  not,  for 
they  knew  that  they  were  safe  as  long  as  their  party 
remained  in  power,  and  that  when  their  party  went 
out  of  power  they  would  loss  their  positions,  no 
matter  how  well  they  did  their  work.  Another 
great  objection  to  this  system  was  that  prominent 
men  of  the  party  in  power  were  never  free  from  the 
appeals  of  persons  begging  for  some  position  under 
Government.  There  is  a  story  that  when  Lincolp 
had  the  smallpox,  he  said,  'T  have  something  at 
last  that  I  can  give  to  every  office-seeker."  In 
1883,  a  Civil  Service  Reform  Act  was  passed,  re- 
quiring every  applicant  for  a  Government  position 
to  take  an  examination.     From  those  who  stand 


TO  THE  FAR  WEST  73 

well  in  this  examination  assistants  in  Government 
work  are  chosen,  and  if  such  an  assistant  does  his 
work  well  and  behaves  himself  no  one  can  discharge 
him.  Most  Government  employees  are  now  under 
CivU  Service  rules.  Several  states  and  large 
cifies  and  even  public  libraries  choose  workers  in  a 
similar  fashion. 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  UNITED  STATES  BECOMES  A  WORLD  POWER 

In  1607,  when  the  first  permanent  Enghsh  settle- 
ment was  made  in  America,  the  voyage  across  ^ne 
Atlantic  took  one  hundred  and  forty-five  days,  that 
is,  thirty  times  as  many  as  it  does  today.  This 
was  the  same  in  effect  as  if  Europe  had  been  thiAy 
times  as  far  away  as  it  is.  It  is  no  wonder  that 
the  early  settlers  felt  almost  as  if  they  were  on  a 
distant  planet .  As  years  passed ,  vessels  and  knowl- 
edge of  navigation  improved  and  Europe  came 
nearer.  In  1860,  the  "Great  Eastern"  sailed  from 
England  to  New  York  in  eleven  days.  Six  years 
later  she  laid  two  permanent  submarine  cables 
from  Ireland  to  Newfoundland.  Whether  the 
United  States  wished  or  not,  she  was  being  swiftly 
brought  into  closer  and  closer  connection  with  the 
other  countries  of  the  world.  European  news  only 
a  few  hours  old  was  served  at  American  breakfas^t 
tables  in  the  morning  paper.  Business  between 
the  two  continents  increased  with  ease  of  com- 
munication. .  * 

Lying  to  the  south  of  the  United  States  was  half 
of  our  great  double  continent.     A  few  far-sighted 

74 


A  WORLD  POWER  75 

men  realized  a  century  ago  that  in  the  years  to  come 
our  relations  witli  South  America  would  naturally 
become  much  closer.  The  wise  founder  of  Girard 
College  required  in  his  will  that  the  Spanish  lan- 
guage should  always  be  taught  in  the  College,  on 
th*e  ground  that  our  commerce  would  naturally 
extend  to  the  Spanish-speaking  countries.  About 
the  same  time  a  congress  was  held  at  Panama,  to 
vvliich  the  United  States  was  invited  to  send  dele- 
gates; but  this  accomplished  nothing  of  permanent 
value.  Most  people  were  satisfied  with  a  small 
exchange  of  exports  and  with  the  requirements  of 
the  "Monroe  Doctrine,"  a  warning  given  by 
President  Monroe  in  1823  that  any  attempt  on  the 
part  of  European  nations  "to  extend  their  system 
to  any  portion  of  this  hemisphere"  would  be  re- 
garded by  the  United  States  as  an  unfriendly  act. 

As  time  passed  and  the  South  American  countries, 
especially  Argentina,  Brazil,  Chile — the  "ABC 
countries" — grew  strong  and  firmly  established, 
the  protection  of  the  United  States  was  no  longer 
needed.  What  was  needed,  however,  was  that  the 
people  of  the  Northern  and  Southern  continents 
fhould  learn  to  know  one  another  better  and 
understand  one  another's  point  of  view.  It  was 
hoped  that  increased  acquaintance  between  them 


76         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

would  increase  business  relations  to  the  gain  of 
both,  and  that  in  case  of  any  possible  future  dis- 
agreement between  any  two  of  the  countries,  the 
difficulty  might  be  settled  by  arbitration.  With 
these  objects,  the  Pan-American  Congress  was 
held  in  1889,  a  meeting  of  delegates  from  tBte 
United  States  and  twenty  of  the  republics  of  South 
and  Central  America,  Mexico,  and  the  West  Indies. 
Since  that  time,  other  congresses  of  the  same  soH 
have  been  held.  For  the  use  of  the  Pan-American 
Union  one  of  the  most  beautiful  public  buildings 
in  the  world  has  been  erected  in  Washington. 

Our  relations  with  South  America,  especially 
with  her  western  countries,  have  been  made  closer 
by  the  building  of  the  Panama  Canal,  for  which 
we  bought  a  strip  of  land  from  the  Panama  Re- 
public. This  was  finished  in  1914,  and  is  open  to 
all  nations  on  equal  terms.  By  striking  out  the 
long  voyage  around  South  America,  this  canal 
has  brought  Australia  four  thousand  miles  nearer  to 
New  York  City.  It  has  even  brought  different 
parts  of  our  own  country  together,  and  the  gold- 
seekers  who  "rounded  the  Horn"  in  1849  could 
have  shortened  their  voyage  by  8500  miles  if  thej^' 
had  waited  until  1914. 

One  of  the  main  objects  of  the  South  American 


A  WORLD  POWER  77 

Republics  in  their  first  Congress  had  been  to  form 
a  union  against  the  power  of  Spain,  and  some 
members  of  the  United  States  Congress  had  then 
objected  to  our  sending  delegates  lest  this  should 
involve  us  in  "entangling  alliances!"  The  en- 
tanglements appeared,  however,  in  1898,  even 
without  any  alliances,  when  we  were  forced  to 
interfere  in  behalf  of  Cuba. 

*  This  island,  the  "Pearl  of  the  Antilles,"  was 
governed  by  Spain  quite  in  seventeenth  century 
fashion,  that  is,  the  mother  country  tried  to  get  as 
much  out  cf  the  co'ony  as  possible  wthout  the  least 
regard  to  its  welfare  or  happiness.  -Ihe  Cubans 
were  continually  rising  against  Spanish  rule,  and 
there  was  no  safety  for  even  the  property  of 
Americans  at  such  times.  Moreover,  the  kind  of 
mosquito  whose  bite  conveys  the  germs  of  j^ellow 
fever  flourished  in  Cuba,  and  from  there  epidemics 
of  this  disease  frequently  spread  to  the  United 
States.  The  island  needed  a  thorough  cleaning 
yp,  physically  and  politically. 

In  1895  the  Cubans  rose  against  Spain  with  more 
determination  than  ever  before.  The  Spaniards 
^hut  them  up  in  camps,  where  thousands  died  of 
starvation.  Our  Government  appealed  to  Spain ,^ 
but  nothing  was  accomplished.     Three  years  later^ 


78         THE.  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

our  battleship,  the  "Maine,"  lying  in  the  harbor  of 
Havana,  was  blown  up.  Many  believed  that 
Spaniards  had  committed  the  crime,  and  "Re- 
member the  Maine!"  became  the  headline  of  the 
American  newspapers  and  the  demand  of  the 
American  people.  The  United  States  now  recog-* 
nized  the  independence  of  the  island,  and  declared 
war  against  Spain.  This  war  lasted  only  three 
months.  Our  troops  captured  Santiago,  and  ouP^ 
naval  forces  destroyed  the  Spanish  fleet.  The 
Spaniards  yielded  and  Cuba  was  free.  Porto  Rico, 
another  Spanish  colony,  became  a  part  of  the 
United  States. 

Before  the  United  States  delivered  up  Cuba  to 
the  Cubans,  a  general  house-cleaning  was  held 
under  the  management  cf  the  United  States  Army, 
and  we  no  longer  need  to  fear  the  coming  of  yellow 
fever  from  its  shores.  Whether  the  political 
cleaning  would  be  as  successful  was  a  question,  for 
the  Cubans  had  had  no  experience  in  self-govern- 
ment. They  agreed  to  accept  the  guardianship* 
of  the  United  States  in  case  trouble  should  arise 
which  they  could  not  control.  This  happened 
once,  and  our  country  went  to  the  rescue.  4 

This   war   with  Spain  had  results  which  were 
unthought  of  when  the  first  gun  was  fired.     At  the 


A  WORLD  POWER  79 

breaking  out  of  hostilities,  the  Filipinos,  as  well 
as  the  Cubans,  were  trj^ing  to  free  themselves  from 
Spain,  and  to  prevent  this,  a  Spanish  fleet  was  at 
Manila.  Commodore,  afterwards  Admiral,  Dewey 
was  on  the  Asiatic  coast.  He  was  at  once  sent  to 
iilanila,  where  he  destroyed  this  fleet.  With  the 
aid  of  American  soldiers  the  town  was  captured, 
and  the  Philippines  were  then  in  the  hands  of  the 
Ijnited  States.  The  Filipinos  wanted  a  republic, 
but  they  were  by  no  means  prepared  for  inde- 
pendence. Against  their  opposition,  the  United 
States  took  charge  of  them,  opened  libraries  and 
schools,  and  restored  order.  No  promises  have 
been  made,  but  it  is  expected  that  when  they  have 
had  sufficient  preparation  for  self-government,, 
the  United  States  will  withdraw  and  leave  them 
independent.  For  the  surrender  of  these  islands 
we  paid  Spain  120,000,000.  The  island  of  Guam, 
one  of  the  Ladrones,  remained  in  our  hands  after 
its  conquest.  It  is  of  value  as  a  station  for  coal 
knd  other  supplies. 

We  were  suddenly  becoming  rich  in  islands,  for 
the  Hawaiian  group,  which  had  been  under  our 
|)rotection  for  some  time,  had  asked  to  be  annexed. 
This  was  done;  and  a  little  later,  the  Samoan 
Islands  in  the  South  Pacific  were  divided  among 


80         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

England,  Germany,  and  the  United  States. 
Spain,  which  had  been  the  discoverer  cf  the  West- 
ern World  and  which  had  founded  its  first  perma- 
nent European  settlements,  w^as  no  longer  the 
possessor  of  one  foot  of  land  on  this  side  of  the 
ocean. 

Japan  has  been  our  friend  ever  since  the  visit  of 
Commodore  Perry  in  1854  opened  that  country  to 
commerce.  A  new  treaty  has  besn  made  with  the 
Japanese  with  a  view  to  strengthening  the  old 
friendship. 

With  China  our  connection  has  of  late  years  be- 
come clossr  and  especially  friendly.  China  is  large 
but  not  strong  in  a  military  way,  and  a  few  years 
ago  some  of  the  European  powers  sought  to  get 
possession  of  part  of  her  territory.  Ey  the  efforts 
of  the  United  States,  they  were  persuaded  to  allow 
the  "open  door"  policy  to  prevail  and  thus  invite 
the  trade  of  all  nations.  Before  this  w^as  settled, 
a  powerful  society,  the  "Boxers,"  set  out  to  kill  all 
foreigners  in  the  land.  By  the  aid  of  soldiers 
from  the  United  States,  Japan,  England,  France, 
and  Russia,  the  Boxers  were  overcome.  It  was 
plain  that  the  Chinese  Government  had  made  n6 
effort  to  protect  foreigners,  and  China  was  forced 
to  pay  an  indemnity  of  $33,000,000  to  pay  the  cost 


A  WORLD  POWER  81 

of  the  expedition  to  restore  order.  Our  share  of 
this  indemnity  was  so  much  more  than  the  expedi- 
tion had  cost  us,  that  our  Government  returned 
$13,000,000  of  the  sum.  China's  acknowledg- 
ment was  most  graceful,  for  she  replied  that 
this  money  would  be  used  for  the  education  of 
Chinese  students  in  America.  These  students  will 
carry  home  with  them  a  knowledge  of  American 
ways  and  ideals,  and  thus  their  education  in  this 
country  will  do  more  than  treaties  to  strengthen 
the  friendship  between  the  two  countries. 

So  it  is  that  the  United  States,  which,  separated 
by  two  oceans  from  the  Eastern  Hemisphere,  had 
lived  in  "splendid  isolation"  from  the  troubles  of 
the  rest  of  the  world,  was  now  brought  into  closer 
connection  with  the  other  nations  and  must  hence- 
forth share  their  responsibilities. 


CHAPTER  XII 
OUR  COUNTRY  TODAY 

In  1914,  save  for  difficulties  arising  from  lawless- 
ness in  Mexico,  the  United  States  was  at  peace' 
with  all  the  world.  We  were  strong  and  busy  and 
prosperous.  Of  course  even  the  least  thoughtful 
among  us  could  see  that  more  than  one  problem^ 
would  have  to  be  solved  before  many  years  had 
passed;  but  we  expected  to  be  able  to  solve  them. 

Suddenly,  early  in  August,  1914,  the  newspapers 
announced  war  in  Europe.  Austria-Hungary, 
supported  by  Germany,  had  attacked  Serbia,  and 
German  forces,  in  spite  of  treaties  and  agreements, 
had  marched  into  Belgium  and  were  aiming  at 
Paris.  France,  Russia,  and  England,  unprepared 
for  war,  were  hastily  calling  their  troops  together 
to  defend  France.  Little  by  little  it  became  clear 
that  Germany  was  plotting  to  dominate  the  world, 
that  she  had  for  many  years  been  preparing  for  a* 
war  to  bring  this  about.  She  had  made  no  secret 
of  her  intentions,  but  few  people  had  looked  upon 
them  as  more  than  dreams.  i 

As  the  "frightfulness"  of  the  Germans  in  war 
became  known  and  there  was  discovered  in  them 

82 


OUR  COUNTRY  TODAY  83 

a  foe  with  neither  honor  nor  mercy,  people  began 
to  reahze  the  awful  danger  of  permitting  one  man 
to  hold  the  power  to  bring  such  agony  upon  the 
countries  of  the  world.  The  war  was  no  longer  a 
contest  among  a  group  of  European  countries,  but 

*  a  world  struggle  between  autocracy  and  democ- 
racy. The  question  whether  the  people  of  a  land 
should  rule  themselves,  or  whether  the  will  and 

*  ambition  of  one  man  or  a  certain  class  of  men 
should  rule  them,  must  be  answered  for  all  time. 

One  country  after  another  entered  the  war.  A 
few  of  the  smaller  states  of  Europe,  helpless  in 
their  weakness,  remained  neutral.  For  nearly 
three  years  the  United  States  held  itself  neutral, 
with  an  occasional  protest  against  the  behavior  of 
Germany.  During  that  time,  Germany  sank  the 
great  passenger  steamer,  the  "Lusitania,"  with 
American  citizens  on  board.  She  sank  Red  Cross 
vessels,  she  fired  upon  helpless  lifeboats,  she  carried 
on  a  course  of  rank  piracy,  and  she  broke  ruth- 

tlessly  the  international  laws  of  mercy  and  decency 
in  warfare,  laws  which  she  herself  had  helped  to 
make.     It  was  discovered  that  the  United  States 

twas  full  of  her  spies,  and  of  persons  whom  she 
paid  to  blow  up  our  factories,  to  bring  about 
ctrikes,  and  to  endeavor  by  every  possible  means 


84         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

to  arouse  dissension  among  our  people.  It  was 
time  for  us  to  enter  the  war.  Thoughtless  people 
said,  "Why  should  we  fight  unless  the  Germans 
attack  us?"  Those  who  thought  said,  "We  ought 
to  have  been  helping  long  before  now." 

The  United  States  entered  the  war,  and  entered'' 
to  win.  No  money  was  spared.  A  general  draft 
filled  up  the  ranks  of  her  troops,  and  "intensive 
training"  at  Plattsburg  and  elsewhere  helped  to'*' 
provide  ofiicers.  Many  cantonments  were  con- 
structed, real  cities  capable  of  housing  40,000  men 
apiece.  The  lives  of  the  men  were  insured,  the 
best  of  food  was  provided,  their  health  was  care- 
fully looked  after,  books  and  amusements  were 
furnished.  Never  before  was  an  army  so  well 
cared  for. 

Germany  had  not  expected  any  armed  interfer- 
ence of  importance  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States,  for  she  had  not  thought  it  possible  for 
troops  to  be  trained  and  carried  across  the  ocean  in 
time  to  be  of  service  to  the  Allies;  but  while  her* 
people  were  still  being  assured  that  victory  was 
within  their  grasp,  English  and  American  convoys 
were  guarding  more  than  2,000,000  American 
soldiers  from  German  submarines  on  their  voyage 
toward  the  front.     Everybody  knows  what  kind 


OUR  COUNTRY  TODAY  85 

of  soldiers  we  sent  to  France,  how  their  fresh 
strength  helped  and  encouraged  the  weary  armies 
that  had  borne  the  struggle  for  four  long  years, 
and  how  at  the  Marne  and  on  the  Hindenburg  line 
and  in  the  Argonne  Forest  our  young  army  played 

*  a  brilliant  part  in  the  final  campaign  that  broke  the 
German  power.  Now  we  are  hoping  that  in  all  the 
days  that  are  to  be,  the  world  will  never  again  be 

-* plunged  into  such  horrors  as  it  has  just  endured. 
Such  is  the  record  of  the  United  States  since  the 
days  when  her  people  were  gathered  into  little 
colonies  scattered  along  the  Atlantic  coast.  Our 
numbers  have  grown  from  a  few  thousand  to 
105,000,000.  Our  territory  has  increased  by  pur- 
chase, rarely  by  conquest,  until  we  now  hold  a 
broad  sweep  of  country  from  ocean  to  ocean.  We 
are  rich  in  lands  at  the  Far  North.  We  have 
treaties  of  friendship  with  many  nations,  and  we 
are  now  enemies  of  none.  In  the  Great  War  we 
have  stood  side  by  side  with  the  peoples  that  love 

-f  honor  and  freedom,  helping  to  save  from  a  very 
great  disaster  the  Old  World  from  which  the 
fathers  or  forefathers  of  all  of  us  came.     England 

?  and  France,  with  whom  we  fought  in  days  gone 
by,  are  our  warm  friends.  When  we  entered  the 
World   War,    England    flung   out   the   Stars   and 


86         THE  LITTLE  BOOK  OF  OUR  COUNTRY 

Stripes  from  the  Tower  of  Westminster  Palace, 
where  none  but  an  EngUsh  flag  had  ever  floated 
before  that  day.     In  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Paul, 
four   thousand    people   sang  the    "Star-Spangled 
Banner,"  without  a  thought  that  it  was  written  to  ^ 
celebrate  our  repulse  of  an  English  fleet.     And  ' 
when  the  time  for  peace  rejoicings  had  come,  then, 
in    St.    Thomas's    Church    in    Washington,    the 
city  whence  a  President  of  the  United  States  had  ' 
once  fled  from  British  fire-brands,  the  national 
hymns  of  the  Allies  were  sung,   and  the   walls 
re-echoed  with 

"God  save  our  gracious  King, 
Long  live  our  noble  King," 

no  one  remembering  that  for  sixty  years  the  lines 
were  chanted  in  honor  of  our  old  acquaintance, 
George  the  Third.  We  have  proved  that  we  can 
fight,  and  fight  hard,  when  we  must;  but  that  no 
motive  save  self-defense  and  the  winning  of  free- 
dom and  justice  for  ourselves  or  for  others  will  lead 
us  to  take  up  arms.  We  have  a  right  to  be  proud 
of  our  country  and  to  look  forward  to  her  future 
with   joyful   expectation. 


